


Dreams of Nobody

by Seer_of_Soul



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: And Roxas deserved exactally none of that, Angst, Angst and Feels, Dreams and Nightmares, Dreams vs. Reality, Heart hotel, Memories, Mostly Canon Compliant, Not Canon Compliant - Kingdom Hearts II, Sora (Kingdom Hearts)'s Heart-Guests, Sora Heart Gang, Those things, Will add more tags when I get them into the story, but I shall make him suffer more, cuz im mean like that, poor roxas
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2020-03-07 01:15:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18862762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seer_of_Soul/pseuds/Seer_of_Soul
Summary: (Set before-ish/during-ish the Roxas part of KH2)The past several nights have been rough. Roxas can’t seem to get a good night’s sleep. Even though he sleeps, he doesn’t feel rested. He feels like he might be going crazy. He’s totally going crazy. Who even considers that the people they dream as could be real? Roxas certainly doesn’t. Those people aren’t real. He knows what’s real. He’s real. This is real. The dreams aren’t.... Right?





	1. Everything’s Better with Ice Cream

Another morning broke through his window, throwing red and orange light across his room. Roxas sat up, feeling just the same as the day before. It was so weird. Sleep never left him feeling rested anymore, at least it hadn’t for the past few days. If not for the sudden passing of nights and the waking up in his bed every morning, Roxas would have thought that he wasn’t actually sleeping at all. Well that... and the dreams. But he didn’t know what to think about the dreams. His feet hit the floor as the clock tower rung across town. 

As Roxas got ready for the day, somehow mangling his hair into a decent level of messiness, he thought about the dreams. They came in sort of rounds each night, like his mind was telling him episodes of several different stories at the same time. Roxas supposed it wasn’t too unusual to dream as a character, someone who he wasn’t. It was like a rpg. He guessed that everyone must dream that they’re someone else... sometimes. But there was something that always felt off to him when he dreamt that he was these different characters in the narratives of his dreams. He felt like an outsider, even to the body and mind he was inhabiting. Their bodies moved on their own. Their emotions rose and fell without his input. These people were strangers, just figments of his subconscious. But at the same time, he felt like he knew them, which was silly. 

Roxas set his comb down on the bathroom sink. He down at the faucet like the blond haired boy in the reflection there knew the answers. His reflection was keeping secrets from him, wasn’t he? The traitor. 

The dreams came in rounds, but never in the same order and never with the same prevalence. The ones he remembered most were of the brown haired boy. Roxas rarely caught sight of the boy’s reflection as he looked through his eyes. The few times he did he just barely caught glimpses of tanned skin and messy brown hair. He thought he saw freckles once, but was never quite able to confirm it. He figured the brown haired boy must have been short, since he had to crane his neck to stare up at most people. 

The dreams where he was the brown haired boy were the clearest, both visually and symbolically. Roxas heard every voice, every breath. It sounded like someone was playing a movie through a metal pipe, but he could hear them. The brown haired boy fought against creatures of inky shadows and massive numbers. He had some kind of sword, a funny looking sword with a bend on the end. 

Roxas saw his companions, his friends. There was the duck, who complained and griped like it was going out of style, but truly cared and was just trying his best, even if he didn’t know how to. Then the dog-person, who was always kind and thoughtful, if a little dense, but offered his thoughts and advise when asked. Then the red haired girl that Roxas was sure he’d seen somewhere before, who seemed to light up the room when she talked and laughed. Even if that room was a sunny outdoor scene, she made it brighter. She had freckles. And blue eyes. That Roxas was sure of. And then the silver haired boy, who was blunt around the edges and talked like he owned the key to the world, but who was genuinely kind, though he showed it in strange ways. He was a fighter, and usually bested the brown haired boy. His eyes were a striking blue-green, like the color of the ocean when the sun struck it just right. The brown haired boy focused on his eyes a lot. Roxas felt on edge whenever the silver haired boy was around. He wasn’t sure why. But he was just a dream, just a character in a dream. He shouldn’t worry about it. But he did. 

Roxas splashed water on his face, shaking his head and letting the rest of the water drip off his chin and nose. The dreams with the brown haired boy left him with a pain in his chest, in his heart. He felt like there was something he was missing, something that the brown haired boy had. But he couldn’t say what it was or why he felt that way. Roxas closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. This was getting out of hand. It was just a dream. He shouldn’t worry about it. But he was worried. Roxas licked the water off his lips. It tasted salty. 

Salt. Right. Sea salt ice cream would help his nerves. Roxas smiled to himself. If he kept indulging in comfort food he was gonna have to face the consequences eventually. Roxas stepped back from the sink, running a hand through his hair. There were just a few days of summer vacation left. He could stand to indulge just a little bit more. 

Roxas paused at the sight of his reflection in the mirror and frowned. He’d messed up his hair again. He grumbled a few choice words and raked the comb through his hair again, until it stopped listening to him. He sighed and dropped the comb in the sink. He stared at it for a second, then picked it up and gently placed the comb on the side of the sink. One last glance at his reflection, and the hopeless mess of sun bleached hair, and he stepped out of the bathroom, turning off the lights. 

There was another boy in his dreams. This one looked like him, or a warped reflection of him anyways. He spent a large amount of time preening in front of the mirror, fixing the bed head that Roxas found all too familiar. There were small differences, Roxas had found after several stressful nights of agonizing over a supposedly forgotten past life. Green star boy, as Roxas had dubbed his look alike, had lighter hair than he did. If the star boy was blond, Roxas was half way between that and brunet. The star boy was taller than Roxas too, at least he thought so. But the green star boy hung out around adults mostly, and never kids his own age, so it made him feel shorter than he probably was. He had greener eyes than Roxas too, almost like there was a layer of blue overlaying a green as vibrant as his star shaped charm. He always looked at when he was alone, holding it against his hand and pressing it against his chest to feel his heartbeat through it. Roxas always felt bad about seeing these moments, experiencing them, feeling these moments of solitude as if he was really the boy he dreamed he was. These dreams were harder to remember, and even harder to see. 

Roxas saw his friends, family. They spoke in distorted snippets, barely discernible words, but sometimes with clarity. There was the blue haired woman, who was gentle and sweet, but could shake the ground with her fury or create a typhoon with a word. Roxas was pretty sure those were some kind of symbolism within his dream. He just hadn’t figured out what they meant just yet. She showed him how to make crafts and such. She was there for him, a calm smile and a soft hug. Then there was the brown haired man, who was tough, but fair, and threw himself headfirst into things without thinking them over. He was always there for the star boy in the dream, with a solid hug and a soothing word. Then the older man, who spoke with authority and stood as some enormous glowing pillar in the dream. His voice was sharp, but smoothed out to a gentle warmth when the star boy crept into his room in the dead of night, driven out of bed by dreams of destruction and sorrow. 

Roxas could tell that this boy loved them all dearly. He felt each moment of desperate searching and betrayal and hopeless wishing as if it was his own heart bearing those feelings. When he dreamed about the green star boy last, he often woke up in tears. This boy fought monsters with brilliant red eyes that came in groups. They swarmed at him like they were desperate, almost hungry for something. These creatures... they left a hollow feeling in Roxas’s chest, like he felt sorry for them. They were missing something important, but couldn’t reach it. The star boy brought his weapon down on them backhanded, held across his forearm. Roxas just saw brief flashes of it before it disappeared again. 

There were other dreams from this boy too. Each dream narrative had its own feeling and these were the star boy’s. But these were so fuzzy and distorted that Roxas could barely make anything out. Someone with silver hair. Someone with black. Someone with pink hair. And someone with grey. Some flashes, like explosions, and eyes peering out from dark smudges. Those creatures scared him. The barest impressions he got from them were ones of danger, intelligence, and malice. They wanted to drag him down into the depths too. Those things scared him. 

Roxas jumped the stairs of his front door, landing on the sidewalk outside. Without missing a beat, he turned and started running towards the usual place. There was always a stash of sea salt ice cream there. 

The morning was still just breaking, sending sharp shadows across the road. The day was growing brighter by the second, filling Roxas with an excited energy. The brown haired boy liked the sun. It felt nice to nap in. 

Roxas slowed his sprint to a stop. Why was he thinking about him now? Roxas shook his head and slapped his cheeks to wake himself up. Now was not the time to think about his dreams. He needed to distract himself. He needed to wake up. He needed some sea salt ice cream. 

She liked sea salt ice cream too. 

Roxas cursed at his own brain. The traitor. 

The girl’s dreams were blurry, so blurry, almost as indecipherable as the green star boy’s blurry dreams. But Roxas could taste the sea salt ice cream when she ate it. He could smell the barest hint of the winter time ocean... or... some kind of ocean. He hadn’t been to the ocean since... he hadn’t been to the ocean. Not outside his dreams. The girl... Roxas never really saw what she looked like. Occasionally he saw a few strands of dark hair fall in front of her eyes, but only for a second. The only part of her that he could see was the black coat. Everything she wore was black; black coat, black boots, black gloves. Roxas couldn’t see any part of her. When he dreams of her last, he wakes up feeling empty, like someone had pulled something out of his chest, leaving a gaping hole. Sometimes he cries. But not always. Sometimes he gets mad, feels a rage that drives him out of his house and out of town. He runs blindly until he can’t remember where he’s running too. Something about dreaming as her makes him... long for something. 

Most often he saw her standing among malformed people. At least he assumed they were people. He heard them talking, but it was more the vague impression of words than actual spoken words. These creatures were pale blobs of vague forms, bonelessly squirming like jelly filled balloons, never quite solid enough to be human. He saw vague impressions of teeth and claws, and sometimes weapons, but the girl walked among them without fear. Roxas wasn’t scared of these creatures either, which was the part that actually scared him. He should be afraid of strange boneless creatures with teeth and claws and weapons, but he wasn’t. Maybe because she wasn’t. 

Roxas hardly saw her friends. He knew they were there, but the blurriness of the dream never let him discern anything about them. One was the same size as the girl in the black coat. That one had blond hair, but he was to blurry to assign any shape or style to the yellow blob on what Roxas assumed was his head. The other one was tall, almost ridiculously so. He had bright red hair that fell over his shoulders. Sometimes Roxas dreamed that they were sitting on top of the clock tower watching the sun set, just like he did with his friends. That part must have been just a part of the dream that he filled in. If these people were real, a thought Roxas barely allowed himself to consider, he’d never seen the girl or her friends on top of the clock tower. 

Of course, that was dumb. The people in his dreams weren’t real. It wasn’t possible. Talking animals and magic? Sure. Transforming teens and monsters lurking in shadows? Well duh. Who wouldn’t believe that? But dreaming of real people’s memories? Absurd. Who would believe that? Roxas sighed as he sat back against the wall of their hangout, sea salt ice cream in hand. Who would believe that? He took a bite and swallowed it whole. Sharp cold slid down his throat at glacier speed, drawing his mind away from the girl he dreamed as. 

The others weren’t here yet, although they weren’t late yet. Roxas took another bite and slowly crushed it between his back teeth. The ice made a squealing sound that sent waves of goosebumps down his arms. Roxas closed his eyes and laid his head against the wall, feeling the rough texture of the brick scratching at his scalp. 

_Scratching sounds came from the shadows, slowly closing in. Red eyes glowing from the dark. Bringing my weapon down cleaves a creature in two. Pain erupts through my body. Through a malformed body. Hurts. Hurts to hurt them. Make it stop. Make it stop. The creatures attack, I told them to. Need to be stronger. Don’t care if it hurts. Must. Must get stronger. I wasn’t a mistake. I’m the real one. I’m the real.... I’m real._

Roxas’s eyes snap open when something cold touches his leg. He leapt to his feet just in time to watch the uneaten, half melted remains of his ice cream fall to the floor. Apparently he’d dropped the stick after dozing off. Roxas groaned at the loss of the poor ice cream, scooping up as much as he could and dumping it into the trash. He wiped his hands against his pants and grumpily sat back down. 

That was the one he’d missed last night. The one he couldn’t figure out. This dream didn’t work with images or smells or sound, just intentions, forceful needs that Roxas actually felt, and the feelings of pain that shook him to the core. When he had that dream last, he often woke up screaming in pain, or blindly bolting to his feet with something in his hand, ready for a fight. 

Roxas had never seen the person he was in that dream. It was too dark, too blurred out, to make out anything recognizable. That dream, the ones about the someone in the darkness, those felt different. They gave him a feeling of danger. More than once Roxas had woken up just after swinging something at phantoms in his mind. He’d broke his lamp like that. He’d came to moments after he’d brought the poor thing down against the wall. Something about those dreams felt different, almost like the person he dreamed as knew he was there, watching through their eyes. So they closed him out. No snooping. No trespassers allowed. 

Roxas didn’t know what to make of all these dreams. It wasn’t like anyone could do anything. He couldn’t talk about them. Talking about them might make them worse, make them more real. As long as Roxas pretended that the dreams, the people in the dreams didn’t exist, he could pretend that they were just dreams. Nothing else. They couldn’t be anything else. There was nothing going on. He wasn’t losing his mind. He wasn’t psychic, that was dumb. He wasn’t having visions of people he didn’t know in worlds that didn’t exist. They were just dreams. Just that. Only dreams. Roxas chewed his lip, staring down at the slowly drying splash of melted ice cream spreading across the concrete floor. 

“I’m me. Nobody else.” Roxas mumbled around his lip, tracing imaginary split lines with his tongue. He’d stayed out in the sun too long; he’d chewed his lip too much. It had split and was bleeding. He got sea water on it. The salt stung even more than chewing at it did. Roxas blinked and suddenly he was back. He was in the usual place, sitting alone. He wasn’t at the beach. His lip wasn’t split. He was biting it too hard though. Roxas let go of it and rubbed at it. “Ow....”

He glared at the puddle of melted ice cream. “This is your fault. I can’t think straight with only half an ice cream,” he grumbled at the puddle. 

The puddle shriveled guiltily. 

Roxas took a deep breath, quietly debating on whether getting up to get another ice cream was worth it or not. He needed to chase away the dreams. It wasn’t fair. None of it. 

The puddle withered under his glare. 

“Roxas? Hey Roxas!” 

Roxas blinked, his head snapping up. Hayner stood in the entrance to the usual place, hand in his pocket and shopping bag hanging from his wrist. “Oh... Hayner....” Roxas rubbed his eyes. “Hey.... Sorry. I was spacing out.”

“I noticed,” Hayner laughed softly, marching across the room to the ‘secret’ stash of ice cream. He pulled one out and tossed a second towards Roxas. “You’re here early.” 

Roxas snatched the ice cream out of the air, impressing even himself. His reflexes had been so on point lately! He felt proud. 

Roxas took a bite and melted against the wall. “I haven’t been getting much... sleep. Well, I’ve been getting sleep, just not much out of it.”

Hayner hummed and nodded solemnly. “I hear that. Well, don’t worry about it too much. I’m sure it’s just a thing. It’ll pass soon.”

Roxas paused. That was... a strange way of phrasing it. But, then again, he was tired. “Yeah. I hope so.” 

“The struggle tournament’s coming up. You better be ready for it!” 

Roxas watched Hayner leap to his feet, pointing his ice cream at him accusingly. Roxas grinned, sitting up and toasting with his ice cream. “Of course. We have a trophy to win after all.” 

“Well, don’t you two look all fired up?” Olette said, appearing at the entrance, Pence at her side. They always seemed to show up together. Roxas couldn’t help the smirk that tugged at his lips. 

“Of course we are!” Hayner proclaimed. “We told you we’d win that trophy for us and so we shall!”

Pence shuffled to the side to peer over Olette’s shoulder. “W-well we’re counting on you then.” Hayner looked rather pleased with himself. Pence turned to Roxas. “It’ll be-be a good chance to pay back Seifer too.” 

Roxas nodded solemnly. “I gotta beat him.”

“His honor depends on it!” Hayner said, suddenly right beside Roxas and gripping his shoulders. He smushed his cheek against Roxas’s and dramatically gestured towards some imaginary horizon. “You must reclaim your honor, for the sake of your clan!”

Roxas side-eyed him. “Is that another movie reference?” 

Hayner grinned, side-eyeing him right back. “Maybe~” Roxas rolled his eyes and shoved him away. Pence had stolen Hayner’s seat, so Hayner sat on the arm of the ratty old couch. 

Olette brought out her bat from behind an empty crate. “I’d love to give Seifer a taste of my mind for what he did...!” She swung at the air, coincidentally, or not, right at the height of Seifer’s head. 

The bat was completely solid wood and had nails beat into it. Olette had gotten it a few years ago, sans the nails, as a birthday present. But she’d reassigned it to combat purposes. Roxas pitied the fool who ticked her off. Though he supposed that fool was Seifer at the moment, so he wasn’t feeling all that much pity. 

Pence started fiddling with his camera, prying the poor thing apart for the third time this week. Roxas had no idea why he kept doing it; every time he asked Pence about it he just shrugged and kept on working. It wasn’t even broken, but Pence insisted on ‘fixing’ it. Roxas guessed it had more to do with Pence keeping his hands busy rather than anything to do with the camera. 

Roxas looked around at his friends, feeling a smile cross his salt stained lips. This was real. Hayner trying to give pointers on Olette’s footing as she swung at nothing. Olette eyeing him over her shoulder with playful irritation written across her face. Pence ignoring them both as he carefully dissected his camera. The smell of sea salt ice cream in the air. The sounds of the trains across town. The slowly warming air as sunlight streamed in on them. This was real. Not the dreams. Roxas felt himself smile as a warm feeling spread in his chest. This was real. He took a bite of his ice cream and swallowed it whole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed! :3
> 
> This is a kinda exparamental writing style for me, but I think it’s turning out pretty cool. :}
> 
> I have a couple ideas for where this story could go. It’s either gonna be canon complacent or completely not at all. I haven’t decided yet. I donno if I want all the ideas I have to be in this story or if I should put them in other stories. =3=


	2. Everyone’s a Little Weird

Something seemed different in town. Roxas noticed it as they walked through town, heading for the sandlot. He noticed it in the way the shopkeepers eyed him warily and seemed to be extremely busy with their mundane tasks. The older man who owned the skate shop answered his greeting with a mumble and a more intense sweeping rhythm. The younger woman who worked at the flower shop seemed to not hear him at all. He noticed it in the slightly unwelcome air that seemed to follow him. Conversations fell into hushed tones as he passed, the participants trying to not seem suspicious. It didn’t work. When he tried approaching a couple kids his age -they were in his class right?- they scampered away like he was made of fire. Eventually Roxas resigned himself to it, even if he didn’t know what ‘it’ was. It was probably nothing. He was probably just on edge from lack of sleep....

 _“Something's wrong,”_ instincts told him. Roxas paused, suddenly puzzled. Those weren’t his instincts. But then who’s...? He shook his head, pushing the thoughts aside. This wasn’t the time for that. 

Hayner appeared behind him and slapped him on the shoulder, knocking him out of his own head. “You sure you’re feeling alright Roxas?” He sounded like he was worried, but was forcing a chipper edge into his tone. 

Roxas pushed a smile onto his face. “‘Course. Just tired.”

“Well, maybe Olette can help you sleep the hard way, huh?” Hayner jumped away from and mimed swinging a bat. 

_Home run!_

Roxas winced at the sudden thought, very slowly edging away from Hayner. “Yyyeeeaaahhh.... I don’t think that’s gonna help.”

Hayner blinked, snapping out of his pose. “I... I was just kidding Roxas.” He edged closer to Roxas until he could gingerly place a hand on his shoulder. “Sorry. I didn’t really mean it.”

Roxas felt a soft laugh escape his lips. “Yeah... Yeah I know. Sorry. I’m just-“

“Tired,” Hayner finished. “Geez dude, you weren’t kidding.” Hayner looked several degrees more worried now. “Do you need to lay down or something?”

Roxas pushed a grin onto his face. “No I’m alright. Like I said, I’ve been sleeping, just not getting much out of it.”

Hayner hummed thoughtfully, eyes roaming all over Roxas’s face. “I know. That’s why I suggested the drastic measures.”

Roxas smiled softly. “Thanks Hayner... But-“

Hayner held up his hands, a loopy grin spreading across his face. “I get it. Just take it easy alright. We gotta be in top form if we’re gonna win that trophy!” He nudged Roxas’s shoulder, not so subtly steering them towards a bench. If he hadn’t been so tired, Roxas would have protested. But, as things were, he was mostly thankful they’d stopped. 

Roxas returned his grin, letting Hayner push him down onto the bench. “Definitely. I still have to restore my honor after all!”

Hayner’s eyebrows shot up for a split second, then he jumped onto the bench, next to Roxas. He threw his arm around Roxas’s shoulders, pulling him close. “I have infected you with my movie references...! I feel so accomplished.”

Roxas rolled his eyes and shoved him off. “That just means you’re a zombie. You’ve infected me with your zombie plague of bad movie references...!” He gave a dramatic fake swoon. “How could you...!” 

Hayner, the jerk, looked very smug and rather proud of himself. He started giggling darkly to himself, drumming his fingertips together as an overdramatic, cartoonishly evil grin spread across his face. Roxas bit his lip to bite back laughter. Hayner would not get him that easily. He refused to give in so easily. Then when he heard an echo of maniacal giggling coming from the other side of him, Roxas just about lost his resolve. He turned around, seeing Olette and Pence standing behind him, mimicking Hayner’s evil laughter and drumming their fingers together. Roxas almost lost it. 

He quickly turned away, covering his mouth with his hand. He could feel Hayner leaning against his shoulder, giggling evilly. He could feel Pence and Olette lean over the back of the bench. He could hear each time their fingertips drummed together. It was just too much. 

Roxas snorted and started giggling, scrunching up in on himself in a last ditch effort to keep quiet. Then, finally, he broke. He sat up, leaning back against the bench. Roxas let an evil grin spread across his face. He drummed his fingertips together and giggled evilly, eyeing Hayner in a ‘I blame you’ way. 

“Heeheehee!”

“Heeheehee!”

“Heeheehee!”

“Heeheehee!”

“What are you losers doing?” A familiar voice snapped. 

Roxas kept his head perfectly still as his eyes slid over to Seifer and his gang, who’d suddenly appeared at the other end of the plaza. Fuu and Rai flanked Seifer. Fuu stood to one side of him with her arms crossed over her chest and her hip cocked to the side. Rai had his other side, his hands on his hips and looking down his nose at them. Vivi stood behind them and off to the side, looking only half interested and digging a stick into a crack in the pavement. Roxas mentally groaned. He really wasn’t in the mood to deal with Seifer and his gang right now. He wished they’d just go away. 

And an idea formed in his mind. Roxas couldn’t help the slightly larger grin that pulled at his lips. “Don’t break character. Don’t break character.” He chanted to himself. 

Roxas slowly turned towards Seifer, drumming his fingertips together. “Heeheeheeheehee!” He giggled evilly. 

Hayner, Pence, and Olette, brilliant friends that they were, picked up on his idea. 

“Heeheeheeheehee!”

“Heeheeheeheehee!”

“Heeheeheeheehee!”

Seifer’s expression was priceless; Roxas would gladly get his butt kicked again, complete with a humiliating photo, just to see that look more often. Seifer looked like he just realized he’d stepped into a horror movie. The blood dropped out of his face and his eyes widened larger than Roxas had even thought they could. He took a half step back before half colliding with Rai. Then he straightened up, and Roxas could see him swallow thickly. He was trying to save face? Not a chance. 

Roxas morphed his face into a deeper evil grin and lowered the pitch of his voice. “Hee.hee.hee.hee.hee.”

Seifer abruptly turned on his heal and stormed away. “Whatever! Be weird by yourselves!” Rai scampered after him. 

Fuu eyed them suspiciously, pointing a finger at them. “Weird,” she parroted. Then she followed after Seifer. 

Vivi looked up from the crack in the ground, looking confused. After a moment, Roxas heard Seifer calling. “Vivi, come on.” Vivi scurried away, still holding the stick. 

Roxas finally dropped the evil grin, feeling a completely genuine one split his face. Olette snorted, quickly covering her mouth and nose with her hand. Pence grit his teeth and shook as he bit back laughter. Hayner had no such self control. He let out a barking laugh, gasping for breath almost immediately. The rest of them were quick to follow. Roxas held a hand over his mouth as he laughed, feeling his cheeks and stomach start to burn after a minute. Hayner toppled over from laughing so hard. He leaned against Roxas as he drew ragged breaths, tears streaming from his eyes. 

“You’re a goddamn genius,” Hayner breathed when he finally got himself under control. 

Olette snorted again. “That was so funny Roxas.” She plopped down on the bench next to him. 

Pence leaned over the back of the bench like a cat, letting his legs dangle as he grinned breathlessly. “I wish I’d took a photo.” 

“I would have paid for that,” Roxas sighed, leaning his head back against the bench. He stared up at the cloud spotted sky, feeling the tiredness slowly leach out of his body with each residual giggle. He heard Olette start talking about her latest horror movie franchise, something something by Zombies. Hayner started making gurgling and hissing noises. Pence snickered and snapped a photo of Hayner’s face. 

Roxas watched the clouds slowly moving, moving wrong.... They weren’t supposed to... didn’t the thin side trail behind the puffy side...? Roxas sat up a little, squinting against the brightness of the blue sky. Where had the sun gone...? It should have been right overhead. Roxas opened his mouth to say something, but suddenly found that he couldn’t move. Everything suddenly seemed so far away, like it was echoing down a metal pipe. He heard Hayner’s laughter reverberating with a metallic edge. The sounds from Pence’s camera seemed to move in slow motion. Olette said something too distorted to hear. 

 

Roxas couldn’t move. He felt like his body was somewhere else, somewhere cold and kinda damp. “Namine is working as fast as she can,” a deep voice said. Something about that voice seemed vaguely familiar, like he’d heard it once before, but couldn’t remember where. “Can’t you stall them any longer?” 

There was metal against Roxas’s back. He was leaning against it, and he was sitting on something like a metal grate. Cold, hard lines, like prison bars, pressed into his skin and chilled him to the bone. He couldn’t move, couldn’t even open his eyes. He heard something banging insistently in the distance. Something inside him wanted to call out to the thing making the sound. He wanted to go to it, or for it to come to him. 

_“I’m here! I’m here! Come get me!”_

“There is only so much I can do to bar a world from their trespassing,” an even deeper voice responded. It sounded a little distorted. Roxas couldn’t tell if it was actually echoing off the walls of the room or if it was done purposefully. “And this world, though small and artificial, is still a world, even with no real hearts within it.” There was a short tapping sound and the thing in the distance cried out as it was struck down. 

_“It’s dead…. But- Wait.... How do I know that?”_ Roxas tried to force himself to move. He had to move. He still had his body.... He only had his body. It was all he had left, it had to move...! He had nothing else left. He couldn’t lose-.... _“What...? What am I thinking? What’s going on?!”_ Roxas tried to force himself to move again. He had to get up, to get out of here. But the only thing he managed to do was emit a soft groan and shift his leg a little, but he wasn’t sure if he actually did that or if his body just moved on its own.

He heard a sharp intake of breath. “He’s regaining consciousness…!” The rustle of clothing approached him. “DiZ…!”

“Do not worry. I can send him back just as easily.” There was a series of quick taps, typing on a keyboard, and a strange sound crackling surrounded him.   
Roxas felt something inside him screaming, thrashing, trying to escape. A feral shrieking sounded in his mind. _“No…! No! Let me go! I don’t want to-...”_ Suddenly his mind was quiet. His body slumped against the wall. The person with the deep voice gave a soft sigh or relief. Roxas felt his limbs going numb, feeling heavy and detached, then warmth spread across him, shooting through his veins. Something was creeping into his mind, digging its claws into him, sending waves of numbness into his brain. Roxas wanted to scream, to cry, to reach out for- Who? Who was coming to save him…? He couldn’t… remember….

_Nobodies... coming._

_“Right... Nobody’s coming.... There’s nobody... coming for me....”_

When Roxas opened his eyes, he was in his own bedroom, feeling exhausted and numb. “Another round of nightmares… Great.” He sat up and rubbed his forehead, fighting against a massive headache. It felt like someone had taken a hammer to the inside of his skull. “At least it was different this time….” Roxas rolled out of bed, adamantly pushing the nightmare out of his mind. He had better things to do with the last week of summer vacation.

 

The usual place was quiet when Roxas arrived. He peered inside and saw Hayner sprawled out on the couch, with one arm thrown over his face. Roxas felt a smile tug at his lips. He quietly crept closer to Hayner, crossing the floor step by step. Roxas decided he was gonna sit on him. His face split into a grin. Revenge was sweet!

But when Roxas was standing next to Hayner, he paused. Something felt off.... There was a dreary kind of aura surrounding Hayner, something cold and malleable, much different from his usual unshakable attitude. Roxas, quickly abandoning his sneak attack plans, knelt down next to Hayner, gently placing a hand on his arm. He shook him slightly, trying to rouse him. “Hayner...?”

Hayner jerked sharply, his arm flying away from his eyes, nearly smacking Roxas in the face. He scrambled away from Roxas, pressing his back against the arm of the couch, then, after a tense moment, he relaxed. “Roxas.... You scared me man!” Hayner huffed and glared at him, apparently trying to brush off what just happened. 

Roxas smiled slightly, still feeling that aura of unease surrounding Hayner. “Sorry.... Were you asleep?”

“Yeah....” Hayner swung his legs off the couch, sitting on it like a semi-normal person. He propped his elbow on the arm of the couch and dropped his head into his hand, glaring at a spot across the room. 

Roxas slid onto the couch next to him, pulling one knee to his chest and laying his cheek on it. “What’s wrong?”

There were several long moments of silence. Then Hayner finally broke it. “I had a bad dream.... I know it’s stupid to be so upset about just a dream but....” Hayner looked down at his lap, chewing his lip. “It left me pretty rattled.”

Roxas felt his eyebrows shoot up into his hairline. Bad dream?Then he forced himself to take a deep breath. “I’ve been having bad dreams lately too,” he admitted. “I get it. And I don’t think it’s stupid to be upset.... Do you wanna tell me about it?”

Hayner’s eyes slid over to look at him. “You first.”

Roxas sighed softly. “Fine fine.” He turned his head to stare at the barrel across the room, the one with their best photos on top of it. 

It was easier to talk without looking at someone else. It felt less personal, less intimate. He’d figured that out a long time ago, though he couldn’t remember when.... 

Roxas closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. Then, when he opened his eyes again, he imagined a brilliant red sunset. Something about that kept him calm as he forced himself to talk. “I keep dreaming that I’m somebody... not me.... I see through their eyes, live their experiences, feel their emotions. But I know they’re not me. And I can’t /do/ anything. I can’t.... I’m trapped inside them, I can only see what they see, can only feel their emotions, ...it feels like I don’t actually exist.” Roxas looked down at his shoes, suddenly very interested in the scuff marks and scratches. He threaded his finger under the velcro strap of his shoe. “I guess... I’m scared.... Those dreams scare me. I’m scared of... waking up and being someone else.”

Hayner was quiet for a long moment, a long, agonizing moment. Then he scooted closer to Roxas, leaning against his shoulder. “I guess I am too....” He tugged Roxas’s hand away from his shoe and interlocked their fingers, squeezing his hand tightly. “In my dream... you didn’t exist.” Hayner’s voice was soft and fragile, even as his grip tightened. He squeezed Roxas’s hand like he would disappear if he didn’t hold him tight enough. “You’re- you’re my best friend Roxas. I... I couldn’t stand it if... you disappeared....”

Roxas felt like his chest was splitting open. His mouth opened and closed silently. His eyes started watering. He squeezed Hayner’s hand back. “It’s okay.... You’re my best friend too you know.” He pushed a smile onto his face. “I won’t disappear. I won’t become somebody else either.” He held their hands up, feeling a grin split his face. “I’m me. Nobody else.”

Hayner looked up at him and smiled. “Good. Cuz I’ll kick your sorry butt if you do.” He wiped his eyes and sniffed, his face splitting into a grin. 

“I’d expect no different.” Roxas laughed, shoving at Hayner’s shoulder. Hayner shoved him back, then went after his hair, messing it up even more. “Hey hey! No fair!” Roxas laughed as he fended off Hayner’s attack, batting his hands away. 

Hayner giggled, knocking Roxas over. “This is revenge for scaring me!” He climbed on top of Roxas and used the leverage to his advantage. 

“Whhhaaaaat?! No! That was revenge for the evil faces yesterday!” Roxas protested, catching Hayner’s wrists and holding them away from his hair. Hayner let out an evil chuckle, giving Roxas another evil grin. 

“Oh...! Um...,” a soft voice gasped. “Are we interrupting something?”

Roxas and Hayner both turned to the doorway, seeing Pence and Olette standing there. Olette had a hand over her mouth, trying to hide her grin. Pence looked like he was debating on whether or not to take a photo. 

Roxas practically felt Hayner’s face heating up. “Get that thought out of your heads!” Hayner’s eyes were wide and his face was definitely redder than before. “I’m trying to mess up his hair!”

Pence’s face slid into a sly grin. He took the photo. Roxas felt his mouth fall open. “H-hey!” Hayner looked exactly three seconds away from exploding. 

Olette sighed and snatched the photo away from Pence. “Don’t be mean, Pence.” Pence started pouting and clutched his camera closer.

Hayner scrambled off of Roxas, accidentally kneeing him in the stomach in the process, and darted across the room. “Give it!” Roxas slowly pulled himself up, rubbing his stomach with a mild glare shot towards Hayner. 

Olette held the photo away from Hayner, shaking her head. “No way. I have an idea for this photo...!” Hayner scrambled around her, pawing at the photo. Olette grabbed his shirt collar and held him at arm's length. “Hey...! Calm down.” She shook her head. “Don’t you wanna hear my idea?”

“Sure!” Pence chirped. 

“No! Gimme!” Hayner cried. 

“I guess...,” Roxas shrugged. 

“Cool,” Olette grinned. 

She trotted over to the barrel that had all their photos sitting on top of it and stuck the new photo of Hayner and Roxas in an already occupied frame, effectively hiding it. “Think of it as... extra motivation. So, if we win the struggle tournament, we get the trophy right?”

“Right...?” Roxas tilted his head, not quite following. 

“Yeah. So?” Hayner sounded a little more impatient. Was he seriously that freaked out over a photo? It wasn’t like anybody but the four of them would ever know it even existed. 

“Well...,” Olette spun around, a smirk plastered over her face. “What if we gave you two extra incentive not to lose?” 

Roxas actually felt his face pale. His jaw nearly hit the floor. “Th-that’s blackmail...!” Hayner sputtered, digging his nails into his scalp. He looked exactly two seconds away from passing out. 

Olette grinned. “Then, I guess one of you better win if you want the photo back.”

Roxas gulped, eyeing Hayner out of the corner of his eye. Well... that was certainly one way to motivate them. Hayner scowled, glaring at Olette like he was debating tackling her. “If Seifer sees that....”

Olette rolled her eyes. “Oh come on. You don’t really think I’d let other people see it, do you? That’s not what I meant. Okay? Just whoever wins gets to tear it up.” 

Hayner sighed and crossed his arms. “Fine.” 

Roxas let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding. Then something blue and salty smelling was shoved in his face. “Come on then. Calm down and have some ice cream,” Pence said, insistently shoving the ice cream up Roxas’s nose. Roxas snatched it and bit off a bit bite. 

Cold crawled up his spine and for one terrifying moment, Roxas thought he was back in that cold room with the two strangers and the metal pressing against him. But a second later the taste of sea salt settled over his tongue and he relaxed. 

Pence handed another ice cream to Olette and shoved the last one into Hayner’s mouth when he was about to demand one. Everyone drifted over to a place to sit and relax. By ‘pure coincidence’ Hayner ended up sitting next to him. Roxas smiled into his ice cream, glancing towards him. It felt good to just talk, even if they had gotten distracted by the end, then interrupted. Roxas’s eyes drifted higher slyly, and a smirk grew across his lips. With a stealthy hand, he reached up and quickly ruffled Hayner’s hair, messing it up. Hayner squawked indignantly and leaned out of his reach. “Hey! Hey! Hey!” He looked so offended. 

Roxas grinned, quickly covering his mouth with his ice cream. “Revenge is sweet,” he laughed, taking another bite of his salty treat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aha! Another chapter!
> 
> This was our pretty quick actually! >:D I am proud. (But now I gotta work on my other fics~ >3>)
> 
> So! I have decided this will be a little canon divergent (cuz I wanna (and y’all can probably see where it is)) But not too divergent. So very much more angst shall ensue! \ ‘^’ / 
> 
> Let me know what y’all think! :>


	3. Little Things Matter

_White walls encasing white creatures. Wandering through white walls and avoiding black figures. Steps echo hollowly. There’s an echo, but it’s hallow, barely existing. Its not that it’s soft, just barely existing. A sound at the edge of existence. It’s fitting here. The sound, the echo, and the walls that make it just barely exist. They’re all hollow. Hollow shells. Like she is._

_White creatures swim through the air, crawl along the walls, the ceiling, the floor. One of them sets up a vase of flowers. It’s the same creature as before. Somehow she can tell. The flowers are different, a soft lilac against stark white walls. Last time they were dark blue. “They’re beautiful,” she says. It seems pleased. They like praise. The praise from a superior is sweet like honey. They have to eat something. Praise works well enough._

_White walls pass by step by step. Black figures appear, flitting just within sight, but never stopping, never coming closer. They don’t approach her. She doesn’t try to approach them. There’s two though, standing up ahead. They don’t notice her at first. Closer and closer, step by step. One step closer. The red one rises. A short wave. The blond one turns around. The girl in the black coat says hello. They say it back._

_Smiling. It’s fake, obviously. They can’t actually be happy. They can’t feel happiness. They can’t feel anything. But they are smiling. All three of them. The world has color when she’s with them. They give the world color. They give it meaning. She thinks she likes their colors, just like she likes the colors of the flowers. She thinks the world is better with color. She appreciates it. It makes her “happy.” They make her “happy.” Even if she can’t return the favor._

 

Roxas woke up with a hollow feeling in his chest, like someone had carved a hole through him. That was so unusual for dreams about her. He rolled onto his side and pressed his face into his pillow, feeling the fabric whisk the tears away before they even had a chance to form. Her dreams were usually warm, even with the white creatures, full of sunsets and ice cream. But this... it was almost painful. And there was something about that feeling, the feeling of not being able to feel.... Something about that was almost reminding him of something, something just beyond his reach. 

Eventually Roxas shoved himself up, rolling out of bed. He landed on his feet and straightened up. Reaching his arms above his head, he stretched out, hearing something crack satisfyingly. Roxas decided he wouldn’t worry about the dreams anymore. Today was going to be a good day. 

 

Roxas ran into Olette on the way to the usual place. She was window shopping at a new store that had just opened last week. Roxas hadn’t gotten a chance to look inside yet, but it looked worth a look. He figured now was as good a time as any to check it out. He veered off course and crossed the street, checking for the trolly first. 

Olette was staring down at a small something sitting in the window, looking torn about it. As Roxas got closer, he saw what she was looking at. It was a small sewing kit, a cloth covered box with a flower shaped pin cushion in one corner. Olette looked like the two sides of her were fist fighting in her mind over getting it or not. She didn’t even notice Roxas approaching until he tapped her shoulder. 

Olette yelped and swung around, very nearly punching Roxas in the face. Roxas jerked himself back reflexively, just barely dodging a broken nose. He was left leaning far back, eyes wide and his arms thrown out for balance. He wasn’t sure how close it was, but he felt like he’d gotten very close to his life flashing before his eyes. 

Olette gasped when she saw it was him, her eyes wide as she pulled her arms in to her chest. “Oh! Roxas! You scared me...!” She inhaled deeply, then let it out in a long sigh, folding in half and letting her arms dangle. 

“Scared /you/?” Roxas scoffed as he straightened up, fixing his jacket. “I’m the one who almost lost an eye.” He smirked and crossed his arms over his chest. 

Olette straightened up, planting her hands on her hips and rolling her eyes. “Please. Black eye, at most...!” There was a moment of silence, then they both snorted, falling into giggles. Roxas remembered the time her bat had slipped from her grip, right after she got it and thankfully before the nails. It had flown across the room in a beautiful arc, and landed directly in his eye. Pence had made them pose for a photo afterwards, the next day when Roxas’s eye had blackened more noticeably. That photo was sitting on their photo display barrel in the usual place. 

When he got his giggles under control, Roxas straightened up and tilted his head at her, raising an eyebrow. “So, what were you looking at?” He asked, as if he hadn’t seen her ogling the sewing kit. 

Olette blinked, then smiled shyly, looking back at the sewing kit in the window. “It’s... a new sewing kit. My needles are almost all bent in my old one and I’m almost out of string....” She sounded like she was making excuses. “So I was thinking about getting a new one, I have some allowance saved up, and well... this one here’s pretty amazing.” She blushed and scratched her cheek nervously, swaying from side to side and hiding a hand behind her back. She didn’t look at him. It was like she felt like she needed to make an excuse for herself. 

Roxas disagreed. “Hey, if you want it, go ahead. I mean, it’s not like you’ll never use it. And if you’re worried about money or whatever, you could probably just sew some stuff to sell.” He tried to be nonchalant, like Pence would be. It didn’t really work. He came off as awkward and unsure. How was Pence so good at this?

Olette smiled anyways. A soft blush spread across her cheeks. “You really think my stuff’s good enough to sell?”

“Sell for a profit,” Roxas corrected. “Seriously. You’re amazing.” He smiled a little wider. 

_Smile. It’s fake, obviously. You can’t be happy. You’re a-_

The smile dropped off Roxas’s face, the hollow feeling from earlier returning with a vengeance. It felt like part of his chest had disintegrated, everything with it, gone. No bones, no organs, no pulse. The hollowness hurt. It hurt being empty. It was painful existing without his-

Olette snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Hey...! Roxas, you okay?”

Roxas felt a smile forming on his face. It was a deflective gesture. I’m smiling. I’m fine. “Yeah...! Yeah I’m okay. Just spaced out for a second.” He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. He knew Olette would worry more than Hayner. If she thought something was wrong with him she’d make him stay out of the Struggle tournament. “Anyway, so the sewing kit...?”

Olette tilted her head, worry flashing across her face for a moment. Then she smiled softly. “I think I’ll get it. But do you wanna look around the store first? I haven’t gotten a chance to check it out yet.” Roxas nodded, feeling a slightly more genuine smile form across his face. 

“Yeah. I wanted to too.” He let Olette grab his hand and lead him into the store. Maybe they could get something for Pence and Hayner while they were in there. 

 

When they finally arrived at the usual place, Roxas felt like he needed a nap. The store had been filled with some kind of incense and was almost too bright, light radiating from the fluorescent ceiling lights. It made everything took too defined and fake, like a video game with bad graphics. The shelves and racks of clothes had been so close together, you’d almost need to be a cardboard cutout of a person to move around in there. Roxas had been more than relieved when Olette had agreed with him and cut their browsing short. She’d gotten the sewing kit and some extra fabric, promising to make Roxas something nice. Then dealing with the clerk babbling on and on for fifteen minutes while they were trying to check out had been more draining than a marathon. He was probably just lonely, but Roxas didn’t feel too bad about rushing out as soon as Olette paid for her sewing kit. 

“Hey there,” Pence smiled, looking up from his camera as they walked in. 

“There you are!” Hayner cried, throwing his hands into the air. “Geez where were you two? When Pence walked in alone I thought I entered an alternate dimension! Then he started talking about alternate dimensions....” Hayner rubbed his temples. Pence snickered behind his hand. Apparently he had been enjoying making Hayner’s head spin with all his theories and such. 

Roxas walked over and collapsed onto the couch with a groan, dropping his feet into Hayner’s lap. Hayner sputtered and protested, but didn’t push him off. “We went to that new store that opened last week,” Olette explained, moving over to sit by Pence, producing her new sewing kit. 

“Was it any good?” Pence asked, looking over Olette’s shoulder as she cracked open the kit. Olette gave a small grunt and shrugged. 

Roxas nestled down against the back of the couch. He closed his eyes, letting out a sigh. “I’m exhausted....”

Hayner poked his knee. “Is it because of the nightmare things?” Roxas flinched. Of course....

“Nightmares?” Olette asked. Damn it!

Roxas glared at Hayner. “Hayner...!” He hissed. 

Hayner’s eyebrows show up. “Oh were we not telling the others? Sorry...!” He didn’t look sorry at all!

Roxas growled at him under his breath. He sat up and looked over at Pence and Olette. “It’s nothing. I just haven’t been getting a lot of sleep because of weird dreams and stuff. But /not/ nightmares.” He shot another glare towards Hayner. 

Hayner held his hands up defensively, then dropped them over Roxas’s ankles, sitting forward. “They just sounded pretty nightmarish to me Rox.” Roxas scowled. 

Surprisingly, Olette and Pence didn’t react the way he’d expected them to. Olette seemed to be thinking, staring down at a drain in the floor and chewing her lip. Pence tilted his head. “My grandma has a dream interpretation book if you want to borrow it.” Roxas shook his head. 

“My dad drinks tea before bed,” Olette offered. “You could try that.”

Roxas shook his head again, holding up his hands. “No guys, it’s fine. I’m alright.” 

Olette hummed softly. “Alright. If you’re sure....” She didn’t look like she believed him. 

Pence grinned. “Just let us know if you need a power nap or something. We’ll be quiet.”

“Maybe...,” Hayner added. He suddenly perked up. “Or maybe...! Maybe we just need to get you so tired you don’t have the energy to dream!”

Olette clapped her hands together. “That’s a great idea! We’ve been doing pretty much nothing all summer, so you must have a lot of pent up energy! We just need to burn that off!”

Roxas’s eyebrows shot up. “That... that’s a good idea actually...!” 

“Of course it is!” Hayner puffed up his chest. “Besides, we have a tournament to win in a couple days. Might as well get some extra practice in.” He stood up, still holding Roxas’s ankles. Roxas felt a small twinge of fear run through him as he realized what was about to happen. “Now let’s go!” Hayner marched forward, and dragged Roxas right off the couch. 

“Ow!” Roxas yelped when his back collided with the cement floor. He’d managed to cover the back of his head with his hands, so at least he didn’t crack his skull against the cement. 

Hayner looked over his shoulder, staring down at him. “Uh, oops....” Roxas glared up at him, but found that he couldn’t stay mad at him when Hayner dropped his feet and offered him a hand. Roxas took it and let Hayner pull him to his feet. 

“I’ll get you back for that...,” Roxas smirked. 

Hayner grinned back at him. “I’d probably deserve it.” 

Olette rolled her eyes. “Alright boys, kiss and make up. Let’s go before someone else claims the Sandlot for the day.” 

“Race you there!” Hayner proclaimed as he whirled around and dashed for the exit.

“If Seifer’s there /do not/ beat him up!” Pence called after him. 

“Okay! If Seifer’s there /do/ beat him up! Got it!” Hayner cackled as he ran through the door. 

Roxas snickered, but rolled his eyes. Olette sighed. “Can you go after him and make sure he doesn’t start trouble Roxas? We’ll get the bats.”

Roxas laughed a bit louder and started running after him. “Oh I’ll make sure /he/ doesn’t /start/ it alright...!” 

Roxas felt his grin widen when he heard an undignified ‘Roxas!’ echo from behind him. 

 

Apparently Seifer and his gang were somewhere else for the day, so Roxas found Hayner pouting and scuffing his feet in the dirt when he caught up to him. Roxas snickered and elbowed him teasingly. A few minutes later, Olette and Pence arrived, finding that the both of them had gotten bored and climbed up into a tree. Olette make a big show of trying to smack them out of the tree like they were piñatas, but she eventually let them climb down on their own. Pence, of course, took photos. No doubt those were going on their barrel later. 

Olette offered a bat to Roxas and one to Hayner, keeping one for herself. “So, who wants their butt kicked first?” She smirked, tapping the bat against her shoulder. 

Roxas and Hayner glanced at each other, until Roxas slowly raised his hand. “Uh, me I guess.” Olette smirked a little more. 

Olette, while not being really into Struggle, was a force to be reckoned with. She was light on her feet and especially good at combos. She didn’t use any particular form or Struggle strategy. She wasn’t good at Struggle, she was good at brawling. Roxas couldn’t drop his guard at all around her, unless he wanted to get smacked in the face with the bat. And she would absolutely smack him in the face if he gave her the chance. She came at him with more ferocity than people tended to do in Struggle matches. It was good practice anyways. 

While they fought, Roxas couldn’t help but think that this was familiar somehow. Well, of course it was, they’d practiced like this before, many many times. But this time, it was different. It was familiar somehow. But it was a familiarity drenched in wrongness. Something was wrong here. Something...-

_She moves differently._ An image of a black coated figure flashed across his mind, leaping into the air and bringing the silver sword down, cutting through shadow. _Sh-_

Roxas grunted as he landed on his butt, one side of his face stinging. Olette stood over him, looking surprised and rather worried. Hayner and Pence rushed over. Hayner knelt next to him, holding his shoulders to keep him from falling over. 

“Are you okay Roxas?”

“What happened? It looked like you just froze.”

“Roxas...? Hey, say something.”

Roxas blinked up at them in confusion. Then he grimaced. “Ow....” Roxas flopped backwards, laying down on the ground. 

Olette’s face appeared over him. “Hey, sorry Roxas.” 

Roxas waved his hand dismissively. “It’s not your fault. I spaced out.” He dropped his arm over his face. “Guess I’m more tired than I thought....”

“You uh... wanna get some ice cream?” Hayner suggested. Olette shot a glare at him. “What...?!”

Roxas grinned tiredly. “Actually... ice cream sounds great.” He let Hayner and Olette pull him to his feet, forcing a smile. “Okay...! That settles it. I am sleeping in tomorrow.”

Hayner snickered. “That’s the first smart thing you said all day.” 

Roxas elbowed him. “Shut up...!”

“Oh...!” Pence gasped. “What if we all have a sleepover in the usual place? We could bring mattresses and sleeping bags and... snacks!”

Olette grinned, shaking Roxas’s arm in excitement. “We could watch movies and make popcorn!”

“Just as long as none of you snore,” Hayner huffed, crossing his arms. 

Olette giggled. “If any of us do, it’d probably be you, Hayner.” Hayner did his best to look offended. Roxas snickered. 

Pence took the lead, rambling on about everything they could do when they got everything set up. He said something about a fort and board games. Hayner grumbled something about them being ‘boring games.’ But didn’t interrupt Pence. 

Roxas grinned, shaking his head. His friends were weird, but he was glad they were his. 

 

Far off, on the other side of town, a boneless white creature slithered through a crack in a wall. It clawed at the walls around it as it slowly drug itself through the crack. It was a tight fit, even for a nearly formless being. Finally falling out, it landed a puddle of itself, coiled like a tangled cable. The creature stood and shook itself off. There was a pause, where the creature looked around, then if bounded forward and slipped down a storm drain. It was greeted by a chorus of clicking and hissing from creatures just like itself.

“Alright,” a voice said. A spark of flame illuminated the darkness, throwing shadows across a confident smirk. “Let’s get started.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tada~ Another chapter down. I am having much fun with this and I’m rather pleased with how it’s going. >:3c 
> 
> And now we’re getting into where KH2 actually starts. So imma go rewatch that part again. :v
> 
> Let me know what y’all think! :Dc


	4. Sleep Schedules: Incompatible

_Cloudy-sunny days were the best. They threw flashes of shadow and sunlight across the gold that decorated the walls. They were rare, but those cloudy days with sunbeams that broke through were his favorites._

_He liked to read in the atrium on those days, his back against one particular pillar, so the multicolored flashes of light and shadow flickered across his book. Sometimes he’d hold his hand out and just watch the colors of the stained glass window flicker across his arm like there was a rainbow of light trapped in the glass._

_He liked those cloudy-sunny days even more when it rained. The soft sound of raindrops on the grounds outside, and the shadows of raindrops that ran across the window when the sun was angled just right. Those days were his favorites. Though he could never say why._

_Maybe... something about the flashes of light and shadow reminded him of something. Hair maybe. Short silver and flowing ebony. Light dark light dark. The rising dawn. A wave of pink. The dimming dusk. A hint of dark grey. Something, a name, danced on the tip of his tongue, the tip of his mind. He’d reach for it, but it would always dance out of reach._

_So he just sat there, watching the colors dance like fire across the floor, his book, his skin. It was... peaceful. It was quiet on days like this. The others left him alone, doing work of their own. He saw them occasionally, a flash of blue running out from one door into another, a noisy smudge of brown that mumbled to himself as he meandered across the room, a graceful spirit of pale white and dark that was here and gone before he even really noticed it._

_Eyes fixed on the shadow that stretched out beside him, like someone else was there, laying beside him, ringed with light of every color. He felt himself smile. Yes. These days were truly his favorite, even if they reminded him of something missing, something he’d lost. Well..., must not have been too important... if he’d forgot._

 

Roxas woke up groggy, with Hayner snoring into his ear. He was warm, almost uncomfortably so. Light streamed in through the crack in the blankets they’d hung over the doorway. Roxas shifted, reaching up to rub his eyes, fighting a yawn. He blinked the fuzziness out of his eyes, looking down at the bodies laying beside him. 

Hayner was laying half on top of him, snoring into his ear. He’d probably been doing that all night honestly, which would explain the chainsaw noise that he’d been only partially aware of while he was asleep. Roxas rolled his eyes and wriggled out of Hayner’s hold. He sat up, finding Olette with her back pressed against Hayner’s, laying in the opposite direction. Her foot lay dangerously close to Hayner’s head. Roxas gave a sideways grin, trying not to anticipate the moment when Olette finally had enough of Hayner’s snoring and kicked him awake. Her head was shoved underneath her flower patterned pillow though, so maybe it had annoyed her, even in her sleep. Then Roxas heard a second, more muffled snore radiate out from below. He peered over the two of them and heard the snore emanating from under Olette’s pillow. 

Roxas covered his mouth, trying not to laugh. So they were both snorers. Why did that not surprise him? Roxas giggled behind his hand and rolled off the mattress, landing on his feet. He stood up and stretched his arms above his head. He glanced around the room, taking stock of the mess they’d left for their morning selves to deal with. There were three popcorn bowls and one pretzel bowl stacked on top of each other, only the pretzel bowl was actually empty. Empty soda cans littered the floor and the barrel they’d used as a table. The tv was off, which must have happened sometime after Roxas had drifted off, and the movies were neatly stacked and put away, which /definitely/ happened after Roxas was asleep. 

But something.... Roxas looked around the room again. Something was missing. Then he realized- ‘Where was Pence...?’ Roxas chewed his lip. Eyes settling on the neatly folded blankets stacked on top of the galaxy spangled pillow, that they’d been amazed to learn glowed in the dark, sitting on one arm of the couch. So Pence has woken up first. But then... where was he?

Roxas’s question was quickly answered when Pence slipped through the makeshift curtains with a couple paper bags. He made a small sound of surprise. “Oh. You’re awake.” He smiled and held up the bags. “I got us lunch.” He spoke in a low voice that wasn’t really a whisper. But it was quiet enough that Hayner and Olette didn’t stir. 

Pence waded over to the couch, carefully maneuvering over the cans scattered across the floor. He took small steps, placing his feet carefully. Roxas followed his lead, heading towards the couch, but took bigger steps than Pence did. He managed to make it without any loud sounds, but with several close calls, and sat down next to Pence. “Lunch?” Roxas asked, a hopeful smile on his lips. Pence nodded and fished out a couple sandwiches wrapped in paper. 

“Turkey or peanut butter?”

“Turkey.” 

Pence handed him the sandwich. “Yeah, Lunch. It’s just after noon. I’m actually surprised you all, or well, those two, slept through the clock chimes.” 

Roxas hummed, carefully unwrapping his sandwich so the paper wouldn’t make much noise. “I slept through it too. The snoring drowned out the clock.” He snickered to himself a little, taking a big bite of his sandwich. 

Pence hummed softly in return, eyes skimming over the room. “Messy night huh...?” He took a small bite out of the corner of his sandwich, and Roxas instantly smelled peanuts. 

He nodded slightly. “We’ll clean up when those two get up.” 

Pence’s lips quirked up slightly as he nodded. “May take till sunset at this rate. They stayed up way later than you did.” 

Roxas tilted his head. “Oh? How do you know...? Didn’t you sleep at all?”

Pence smiled, just shy of a smirk. “I don’t need much sleep, just a couple hours at a time. I usually stay up this late.”

“And still get up at the crack of dawn?” Roxas raised an eyebrow. 

Pence shrugged. “It’s a gift.” He gave a slightly smug smile. “Besides... the world looks so different just before dawn.... It’s one of my favorite times to take photos.” Pence tapped his finger against the camera that always hung around his neck. “The world’s monochrome... all on its own. And when the sun just barely breaks the horizon... the colors burst to life.... It’s so beautiful....” He had a far off look in his eyes and an awestruck smile on his face. 

Roxas hummed softly. “Then... you gotta get me up sometime to see it.” His face split into a grin. “Sounds amazing.”

“It is!” Pence exclaimed, his face suddenly shining with light and excitement. Roxas held a finger to his lips, then jabbed one at the mattress. Pence slapped a hand over his mouth, eyes wide as he stared at Hayner and Olette. They didn’t stir, aside from Hayner sliding into the warm spot Roxas had left behind. 

Roxas laughed softly under his breath. “Why don’t we go eat outside? Then we don’t have to be quiet.” Pence hesitated, then nodded. He wrapped the paper around his sandwich again and stood up. He gently set the paper bag with the other two sandwiches where he’d been sitting, then carefully started picking his way across the room. 

Roxas stood to follow, then hesitated. He glanced to one side, eyeing the secret stash of ice cream. Ice cream.... Decision made. Roxas made his way to the stash, grabbed two bars, and danced his way back across the room, meeting Pence at the door. He grinned widely, holding up the ice cream triumphantly. A grin flashed across Pence’s face, then he flashed two thumbs up at Roxas. Roxas held the blanket curtains open for him, giving a mock bow. “After you.” Pence snickered, then slipped out of the usual place, Roxas following after him. 

 

Roxas was rather pleased with how their lunch turned out. He and Pence had been talking back and forth for almost an hour. They were just... talking. They talked about the summer homework they were pointedly avoiding, how late Hayner and Olette would sleep if they let them, and the rumors about new ice cream flavors made special for the upcoming struggle tournament. It was nice, just talking about meaningless stuff. It almost made him forget about the dreams. 

Roxas had the feeling Pence was distracting him from that topic on purpose. He appreciated it. He smiled up at Pence as he slipped into a half mumbled monologue about the existence of other worlds. Pence liked the idea that there were other worlds out there, beyond the sky. He believed it wholeheartedly. It was his go to conversation, even if he did most of the talking about it. 

Hayner adamantly proclaimed that there was no such thing as other worlds. ‘If there were, we would have had visitors from other worlds by now!’ He’d cross his arms and huff like that was the end of that. 

Olette didn’t really believe it either, but she was nicer about it at least. ‘I just don’t know. I mean... anything’s possible... but there’s really no evidence....’ She’d smile sheepishly, and let Pence talk himself out, or argue with Hayner, but she didn’t try to stop him. 

Roxas was the only one who actually thought he might be right. He wasn’t sure why, but something deep inside him was absolutely positive that there were other worlds. He’d proposed a few ideas he had to Pence, a world ruled by lions, one where it’s always Halloween, or Christmas, a world that’s just a string of islands, surrounded by an endless sea. Pence had kind of just laughed those ideas off. They seemed too silly, and Roxas couldn’t really blame him for thinking so. He had based them off his dreams after all. Dreams were nonsensical.... At least they were supposed to be....

At one point, Pence stopped talking suddenly, mid sentence. Roxas turned his head to look at him. Pence sat stone still, eyes focused towards the top of Roxas’s head. For a long moment, nothing happened. Pence didn’t move, and neither did Roxas. Then, ever so slowly, Pence raised his camera and snapped a photo, the flash going off like lightning. 

Roxas blinked the spots out of his eyes as the camera spit out the photo. Pence stared at it for a long time, holding completely still, waiting for it to develop. Then, when it did, Pence smiled and held the picture up for Roxas to see. 

Roxas stared down at the picture of himself, eyes wide. In the photo, he was sitting on the bench next to... himself! No. That was the green star boy...! He was standing right behind him! Roxas whirled around, but saw nothing... no one. 

“Aww....” Pence sighed. “It flew away.” Roxas looked back at him, then down at the picture again. The green star boy wasn’t there anymore. The green star boy wasn’t there. Instead, the picture just showed Roxas with a small green butterfly sitting in his hair. He stared at it, suddenly feeling sick to his stomach. That- what...? What just happened? Was he dreaming just now? 

Pence looked disappointed, almost like he was pouting. He stared after the butterfly, watching it flit across the plaza. Roxas offered him an apologetic smile. “Sorry.... I didn’t- sorry.”

Pence shook his head. “It’s alright Roxas.” His lips quirked up in a sly smile. “Didn’t know you were afraid of butterflies.”

“I’m not,” Roxas shot back, adding a side long glare for full effect. 

Pence snickered softly. “Sure sure.” 

Roxas rolled his eyes and shoved at his shoulder, but he was smiling anyways. “You sound like Hayner.” Pence snickered again. 

Eventually they headed back to the usual place. Roxas’s ice cream stick was a winner, so he was feeling pretty good, despite the momentary hallucination. Pence seemed pleased with the photo of the butterfly. He kept staring at it, completely distracted. Roxas had to grab him to keep him from walking into walls and trash cans. Roxas didn’t know why he was so absorbed by that photo....

Hayner and Olette had woken up since they’d left, scavenging the remains of the popcorn and junk food. Pence pointed them to the other sandwiches, left untouched in the paper bag. They gratefully pounced on it. 

Roxas snickered as he watched Hayner try to lick a blob of peanut butter off his upper lip, but he only managed to push it up into his nose. Olette practically inhaled her food, and started using the now empty paper bag as a trash can, picking up the soda cans and other trash. Pence started helping her, pulling the pop tabs off each can with one hand. He was still holding the butterfly picture, squinting at it every few seconds. Roxas watched Hayner fail to understand the proper use of a napkin for another minute, then joined the clean up. 

 

When they finished picking up all their trash and organizing the pillows and blankets, Pence waved them all over. He was sitting on the couch, still staring at the photo. Roxas was behind the others. He had dropped the trash bag by the door so they’d remember to take it with them. 

“What’s up?” Hayner asked, perching on the arm of the couch. 

“What’s that a photo of?” Olette asked as she sat down next to Pence. 

Pence stayed silent, eyes focused on the photo. He seemed almost... not there. Hayner prodded his shoulder. “Let us see~!” He whined, leaning his weight against Pence and dropping his chin on top of Pence’s head, trying to see the photo. 

Pence slowly raised his eyes to look up at Roxas. “Have you always had green eyes?”

Roxas froze. He felt his stomach drop. _Green eyes...? Just like-...._ Something hot and nasty settled in the back of his throat. Their eyes were the biggest difference... the difference he clung to as proof of his own identity.... They had different eyes, so they had to be different people. He couldn’t be this boy with a past he didn’t remember. He couldn’t be missing part of his life, searching for friends that may not be alive anymore. He was a different person than-

Was that changing? Panic rose in Roxas’s throat. Was he losing parts of himself to the people in his dreams? Were they /taking/ pieces of him? Losing his heart was- _Familiar. This is familiar.... This thought, this feeling- so familiar._ What was happening? What did they want from him?! _Where is my heart?_

_I lost it......_

Fingers pressed against his face, jolting Roxas out of his thoughts. Hayner was staring deep into his eyes, his nose barely a hairs breath from touching Roxas’s. He was so close Roxas could feel him breathing. Roxas felt heat rising to his cheeks. He opened his mouth to talk, say something. He couldn’t. He raised his hands to push Hayner away. He couldn’t do that either. His brain had shut down. Why was he so close? Why was he freaking out from him being so close? What was he just freaking out about?

“Now I am /very/ sure that they are blue.” Hayner proclaimed, half mumbling to himself. He looked over his shoulder. “Told you. Roxas has blue eyes. Your camera must be busted.” Roxas managed to shove down the internal screaming in his brain enough to actually process what was happening. 

Pence stared down at the camera in his lap, looking distraught. That camera was his baby, his pride and joy. If it was busted.... Olette patted his head sympathetically. “Maybe one of the ink colors or something is crooked.”

“That’s not how cameras work...,” Pence mumbled. 

Hayner threw his arm around Roxas’s shoulders. “Well whatever. Green eyes never killed anyone.” He looked over at Roxas, an eyebrow quirking upwards. “So, any dreams last night?”

Roxas felt a wave of relief wash over him. His shoulders relaxed. Nothing was wrong. He was with his friends. They cared about him. And they were his friends, not the green star boy’s, not the brown haired boy’s, not the black coated girl’s. These were his friends. They couldn’t take them away from him. 

Roxas felt a smile tug at the corner of his lips. He was touched. He could feel the aura of barely disguised caring practically rolling off of Hayner. “Only good ones. Apparently the way to cure nightmares isn’t tea, but five cans of soda and lots of ice cream.”

Olette looked mildly horrified. “I don’t think that’s-“

“Yeah!” Hayner cheered, pumping his fist into the air. “Now we know the way! And the way is sugar!”

Roxas mirrored his fist pump. “Yeah!”

“Was that another movie reference...?” Pence mumbled, not looking up from the newly dissected guts of his camera. 

Olette rolled her eyes, rubbing her forehead. “Speaking of nightmares....” Then, suddenly she tensed up, raising her head to eye the curtained doorway suspiciously. “Did you guys just hear Seifer?”

Roxas cocked his head to the side, listening intently. “No,” Hayner admitted. Roxas shushed him. 

Distantly, and very quietly, Roxas heard the sound of Seifer’s ranting, far too soft to make out any words. “Yeah.... I hear him. Why?”

“Noisy...,” Hayner grumbled. 

Olette pursed her lips, her eyes warily watching the door. The blankets swayed ominously in the breeze. “I just got a bad feeling....” 

Roxas tilted his head. He heard the voice getting louder. 

 

Not three minutes later, Seifer stormed through their door, nostrils flaring and eyes blazing with unbounded fury. “I know you losers took it!”

“Hello to you too....” Hayner grumbled. He was sulking even more because Olette had very purposefully set herself between him and the spiked bat. 

Roxas stared up at him, feeling a puzzled expression spread across his face. “Took... what?”

Seifer glared down his nose at Roxas. “Don’t play dumb. It really doesn’t look good on you....”

Roxas just stared at him, now several degrees past confused. “I.... What are you talking about?” Did he just... insult him or compliment him?

“Go away Seifer,” Hayner growled, a little louder this time. His shoulders had tensed and he was sitting closer to the edge of his seat, ready to jump up at a second’s notice. 

Seifer ignored him, taking several steps to stand in front of Roxas. “Just give it back and no hard feelings okay?”

Roxas stared up at him, mouth slightly agape. “I have no idea what ‘it’ is. Use some /nouns/ Seifer.”

“/It/ is the photo we took last time I laid you out flat.” A sneer flashed across his lips before settling into a cocky grin. “You’re the only ones who’d take it. Why? Afraid I’ll use it as blackmail in the tournament?”

Roxas let out an exhausted sigh. “Oh that....” His shoulders slumped ever so slightly as his face tried to pull itself into a grimace. “I didn’t take it, Seifer. I didn’t even know if you still had it.”

Seifer huffed, almost offended. “Of course I still have it!”

“Had it.” Pence corrected it. Seifer’s eyes swept across the room, almost like he was noticing that the others were there for the first time. His eyes settled on Pence, who looked like he was only half paying attention, focused on fixing his camera. “If it was stolen, you ‘still /had/ it. And you don’t any more.”

Seifer looked like he seriously wanted to straight up deck Pence. But Olette piped up before Roxas could. “Look Seifer, we really didn’t take it.”

“I don’t believe you.” Seifer sneered, looking down his nose at her. 

“Well can you prove we did?” Olette looked up at him with a sickly sweet smile on her face. She was probably gonna sucker punch him if he didn’t leave soon....

“You’re the only ones who’d take it!” Seifer protested. 

Roxas pushed himself to his feet. Hayner jumped up right after him, looking at Roxas, seemingly for permission. Roxas stepped between Hayner and Seifer. “You can’t prove anything and that’s why you’re here. But we didn’t do anything wrong. We didn’t take your photo. So you should leave.”

Seifer glared down at Roxas, looming dangerously over him. Roxas stood his ground, staring up at him with a determined look. Roxas got the feeling Seifer was trying to look through him, see the lies he was sure were there. But after a moment, Seifer relented. He scoffed and turned on his heels, storming towards the door. 

“This isn’t over between us Roxas...,” Seifer growled over his shoulder as he left. 

Roxas glared at the empty doorway, letting out a sigh. “It’ll never be over between us.... Not until the day I die.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now...!!! >:3 We begin Kingdom Hearts II !!!! Heeheeheeheehee~!!
> 
> Sorry it took so long. ^^\ I got distracted with relearning digital art so I could redraw a drawing I did digitally. =,=‘ Took a couple days....
> 
> Mild disclaimer: I haven’t actually played... /any/ Final Fantasy game. So sorry if I change the characters a bit. ;p
> 
> But! Now we are ready to pick up on the timeline of KHII and I am ready! Are you? >:3c


	5. Lost Things Found

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since it’s been so long.... (sorry >3>)
> 
> Roxas has been having nightmares of people he doesn’t recognize (sora and the heart gang). He’s been experiencing weird bouts of déjà vu and ‘glitches’. This chapter is the first of the canon days, so I tried to find a balance between the canon script and mine. Hope y’all like it.
> 
> (The upcoming chapters are gonna be a lot loooooonger because I’m adding stuff to stuff, instead of just making stuff. °3°)

_Days on the island were peaceful. The sparkling sea, the warm sand that never burned his feet, the breeze that tugged at the edges of his shorts and shirt and ran through his hair, all of it was a part of him, just as much as any body part. He carried them with him, even as the tan that took a lifetime to make started fading from his skin. His hair darkened at the roots, no longer bleached by the sun and sea salt as it grew._

_He found himself staring at his reflection more than he ever did before. And every time he did, he felt his heart ache for home. He missed the cool sea breeze that made his shorts snap against his leg and rippled through his hair, especially when he ran. And the sun that hurt his eyes even when he only looked at its reflection on the water beyond the waves. He missed the palm trees, the sound they made when their leaves shook, the crabs that declared war on their toes, completely unprovoked, and even the sand and sea salt that burrowed into his pores and always left him feeling gritty no matter how hard he tried to wash it off. And he missed his friends. That was most of it._

_But he pushed a smile onto his face and returned to his new companions. No sad faces here. No matter what he felt inside: this ship runs on happy faces. And they did make him happy, they did. Even so... he missed his friends. More than anything._

Roxas woke up crying. 

He wasn’t sure why, but something struck true with his heart. Something deep inside him /understood/. He didn’t go back to sleep that night, just wrapped himself in his warmest, fuzziest blanket and made his way to the kitchen for a warm drink. 

Roxas sat down at the kitchen table as he waited for the water to boil. Olette had shoved a box of chamomile tea at him when they all split up yesterday. He’d have to remember to thank her for that. 

Roxas laid his head in his arms, rubbing his face against the fuzziness of the blanket like that might rub away this feeling that bubbled up inside him. It didn’t feel like anything he thought he had felt before. It was a kind of loneliness, a painful loneliness that felt like his heart had been scraped out of his chest with a plastic spoon. 

He fixed his eyes on the pot on the stove, staring at the warped reflection of the room in the black metal. It was probably painted or glossed or something right? The metal itself wasn’t actually black. Though it seemed... oddly familiar....

_Black... Black something...._

The black haired girl wore a black coat and booted and gloves, her friends did too. But, that wasn’t it....

The dark dreams, the person he could never quite see, those dreams were dripping with blackness. The shadows, the creatures, the flashes of red that wound through blackness like veins, there was a lot of black there. Maybe some of it was metal...?

Something cold seemed to press against his ribs, a sharpness that didn’t quite cut him... yet. What was this feeling? It felt familiar, like a cold sting he’d long since grown used to, but he had no idea what it was supposed to be. He felt his heart start beating faster. Something... he was seeing something.... A memory? A dream? Something cold wrapped around his core. 

_The cold of the rain hit his skin, even through the coat. Cold had settled into his hands a while ago, chilling them to the bone. Bright flashes of too bright color, neon light, slipped past his vision as he walked past glass and puddles._

_Determination sat heavy in his chest, driving him forward through the cold and the rain. There was something he had to do._

_Resolve pulsed through his heart. He couldn’t afford to lose. He was barely hanging on as it was. He couldn’t let go. He refused to._

_Staring down the silver haired warrior, across the expanse of black asphalt, the rain soaked pavement that might swallow them at any moment, he tightened his grip until he felt his knuckles straining. This was his first real fight. That’s what it was, a real fight, a clash of wills, a battle of resolves, both of them just as determined as the other, both as desperate. He knew that, even though they had yet to say a word to each other, he knew the other person was just as desperate. He couldn’t afford to lose either._

_Suddenly, the stranger sprung forward, across the distance between them in an instant._ For an instant, Roxas thought he recognized him. _A flash of dark metal cut across his vision, the warped reflection of his own blue eyes in black metal the last thing he saw._

 

Roxas jerked, his head flying up with an impressive crack from his neck. He almost toppled backwards in his chair, but reflex made his hands clamp down on the sides of the table and pull him back down. After a moment passed, and he could actually breath again, he winced and rubbed the back of his neck, feeling like his head was spinning. He looked around. He was still sitting at, or more accurately, slumped over the kitchen table. His blanket had fallen off his shoulders, pooling between his butt and the back of his chair. His sleep shirt had ridden up too, exposing his stomach to the chill of the pre-sunrise air. No wonder he felt so cold. 

The hiss of water becoming steam jolted Roxas the rest of the way awake. The water he’d left on the stove was boiling over, hitting the red hot stove and vaporizing. Roxas threw himself out of his chair and flew across the room, snapping the dial all the way around to ‘off’. 

He forced himself to breath, throwing one last look around the room. Everything was okay. Nothing had caught on fire, as if anything would, when he’d dozed off. The only damage done was Roxas having to wait even longer for his tea as the over-heated water cooled to an appropriate drinking temperature. 

Roxas let out a soft sigh and slumped back against the counter, letting his eyes slide shut only for a moment. Everything was okay.... Everything was fine.... Everything except... the dreams. 

Roxas sat quietly as he made his tea, watching the color slowly change as the camomile infused the water. He moved to the couch of the living room part of his kitchen, leaning against the arm and looking out the window. He sat silently, drinking his tea as he watched the sun rise. The air was chilly and quiet, with whispers of the far away sea breeze. Warmth pooled in his stomach, slowly spreading through him as the sky turned soft shades of grey, then pink, then blue. It was... different, and beautiful. 

 

Roxas stared down at his hands, sitting on a barrel in the usual place. He kept chewing the inside of his lip, even though he was already tasting blood. 

He had told Pence that he’d gotten up early and watched the sun rise. He didn’t say why. Pence didn’t ask. He was grateful for that. He had told Olette that he’d used her tea this morning, and thanked her for forcing it on him. She’d smiled smugly at him, clearly pleased to be right. She didn’t ask him why he’d made tea. He didn’t tell her. Hayner watched him silently as he fiddled with his wristband, at least until Pence distracted him with a conversation about something - Roxas couldn’t remember. 

He was spaced out, he knew he was. But he couldn’t bring himself to stop. He just kept thinking about that second dream he’d had, the one that soaked him in freezing rain. He couldn’t quite put his finger on why, but he kept imagining his hands covered in cold, wet black gloves. They felt right. That felt wrong. He couldn’t make heads or tails out of it. 

Suddenly, as the sounds of the train overhead faded, Hayner’s voice cut through his space, drawing his attention. “Man! Doesn’t that just tick you off?!” Roxas blinked, his brain trying to process the conversation he’d been only half paying attention to. They were talking about Seifer right?

Pence nodded, looking up at Hayner, who’d jumped to his feet. “Yeah, that’s just wrong... and mean.”

“Seifer’s definitely gone too far this time,” Olette agreed, clenching her fists. 

They all looked over at Roxas, giving him a chance to declare his loathing for Seifer as well. But... he really had no idea what they were talking about. He blinked dumbly. 

Hayner sighed and shuffled his feet, rubbing the back of his head a little harder than he meant to. “I mean, yeah, stuff’s been stolen around town. And we have a score to settle with Seifer and all that... So if he /really/ wants to think we did it, I can’t really blame him.” 

He crossed his arms, pursing his lips. “That’s not what’s really bugging me. What’s really bugging me is that he’s going around telling everyone that we’re the thieves! Now the whole town is treating us like the Klepto Club! It’s infuriating! The clerks at the sports shop were tailing me the whole time I was there yesterday! Like they actually thought I was gonna steal something! Have you guys ever been this ticked off in your life? Because I haven’t!” He shook his head, glaring down at the ground accusingly, like he was imaging Seifer’s face below his shoe. “I haven’t.... Nuh-uh, never. But now… what to do.....”

“Was that another movie reference,” Pence started. 

Roxas cut him off. “If we could find the real thieves, then we could prove that it wasn’t us who stole that stuff.” He still wasn’t sure what had been stolen, he’d missed that bit, but he didn’t want to ask. 

Pence gasped slightly. “Hey...! That actually sounds like a good idea!”

“Hey...,” Roxas muttered. “You don’t have to sound so surprised....”

“But... what about Seifer?” Hayner asked, eyebrows pinching together. “He could just say that we’re looking for more stuff to steal.”

Roxas stood up, crossing his arms in a confident pose. “We just have to clear our names. Once we find the thief and prove we’re not the culprits, everyone will get off our backs. And maybe they’ll stop believing Seifer so readily too...!”

Hayner’s eyes lit up and he grinned, crossing his arms to mirror Roxas. “Sounds like a plan...!” He made a sound in his throat that might have been a growl, but Roxas wasn’t sure that he hadn’t just choked on his own spit. 

“Oh no!” Pence’s voice, sharp and alarmed, grabbed their attention. “They’re gone! They’re all!” Pence stood hunched over the barrel in the corner of the room, his camera sitting by his leg. “Our ——— are gone!” Pence almost flinched, his hand flying to his throat, fingers just barely touching his skin. “Wh- what...?”

Hayner’s eyes widened. “Our ——— are gone?” He balked. “Huh?” He clapped his hand over his throat like he’d swallowed something unexpectedly.  
Olette stood up, suddenly concerned. “What? You can’t say ———! Why not?” She inhaled sharply, looking like she’d swallowed a bug. 

Pence turned around, eyes wide and a little bit scared. “But you do understand the word I’m trying to say, right? You understand me when I say our ——— are gone, right?”

Roxas nodded slightly, eyebrows knitting together as he thought. “They were stolen…. But not just the ——— themselves. The word itself, that was stolen too!” The missing word tasted like electricity against his tongue, like one of the brown haired boy’s lighting bolts had hit only that part of him. His mouth tasted vaguely like copper and something else he couldn’t place. 

“What the hell kind of thief is that?” Hayner looked like he was forming each word carefully, making sure his mouth was still working right. “Seifer couldn’t have pulled /this/ off. ...right?”

Roxas nodded a little. “Yeah. Definitely not.” At least he hoped not. He chewed the inside of his lip, touching his hand to his chin as he thought. “I... I don’t think anyone we know could do this....”

“Is it the same person as the thief?” Olette asked, tilting her head and twisting a strand of her hair around her finger. “Could it be different people stealing both the- the items, and the word?” Apparently she didn’t enjoy what the missing word tasted like either. 

Pence’s fingers tapped against his camera with sharp taps. “If they are, they’re definitely connected. It’s too much of a coincidence.”

Hayner nodded in agreement. “Let’s go look for clues.” The others nodded and followed Hayner as he sprinted out of the usual place, though Pence just walked and Olette more trotted than sprinted. 

Roxas moved to follow, but he was hit with a sudden feeling of vertigo, like he was suddenly walking a tightrope, stories above the ground. He swayed and took three steps backwards before his legs gave out. Roxas caught hold of the arm of the couch as he fell, stopping himself from cracking his head open on the concrete, but his arm went partly numb. He could still feel it, feel as his fingers slipped bit by bit until he was laid gently on the ground, but he had no control over it. He couldn’t feel the muscles in his arm at all, like it wasn’t actually his arm. Roxas felt the cold concrete press against the side of his head, and found himself eye to eye with the stain from the ice cream he’d dropped days ago. The ice cream stain on the concrete stared at him solemnly as his vision slowly faded to black. 

 

Cold. He felt cold. Something cold pressing against him from all sides. His body felt heavy, like there were weights hanging off his wrists and across legs. He tried to move, but he could only twitch his fingers. _Move.... Move...! Come on! Move!_

“His heart is returning. Doubtless, he’ll awaken soon.” That voice, he recognized it. But where- he couldn’t remember where he’d heard it before. 

Something whispered against the edges of his mind. _Soon.... Soon.... Coming for you.... Assassin...._

 _”There’s an assassin coming for me?”_ Visions of flame danced across the inside of his eyelids. He felt warm. His chest felt warm. His chest felt lighter. His cheek still felt cold.

 

Roxas grunted as he pushed himself off the concrete. He felt the impression of it lingering on his cheek. His head hurt. He pushed himself to his feet, pulling himself up with the arm of the couch. He swayed back and forth on his feet. The room spun around him, threatening to pull him back to the ground. 

“Roxas.” Olette’s voice reached out for him, steadying his stance. He looked up. She was in the doorway, waiting for him. “Come on.” Roxas nodded and jogged after her. 

 

Market Street was more quiet than usual, though Roxas barely noticed. There were usually more people, just walking around. But Hayner waved him over before he could notice what felt strange. 

“Roxas! Here!” Hayner grinned, waving his arm around over his head. Pence ducked to avoid it. 

They stood in front of the equipment shop, though no one knew for the life of them why it was called that. It sold all sorts of clothes, from the wristband Hayner wore during StrugglePence looked rather pleased with himself as he pointed towards the door. “Let the investigation... Begin!”

The three of them then proceeded to shove Roxas towards the storekeeper. Roxas scoffed indignantly as the three of them hid behind him. Something about it felt weird though, it put his nerves on edge, like there was something they were hiding from, something he had to protect them from. But he pulled all of his composure together to face the counter. 

The storekeeper, it was Johan today, raised his head from the magazine he was reading and cocked an eyebrow. “Oh. Roxas...,” Johan leaned to the side, peering around Roxas. “And friends....” Johan’s eyebrows crept upwards until it disappeared into his azure colored hair. Roxas was only slightly convinced that that wasn’t his natural color. Somehow blue hair didn’t seem strange to him. 

“Damn it,” Hayner breathed. The three of them stood normally after that, Roxas tried not to roll his eyes. Johan had no such reservations. 

“What do you need?” He asked in a tired voice. “If you’re looking for more to steal-“

“We didn’t steal anything!” Hayner snapped. “We’re innocent!”

Johan fixed his gaze on Hayner. “Man, I’d /love/ to believe you but... I don’t. Who else would steal it? Just give it back before Mx. Han gets back and I won’t even mention it.”

“We didn’t-!” Olette protested. 

“Steal what?” Roxas said, an idea forming in his mind. If they could get Johan to realize that the word was stolen too, he’d have to believe that they didn’t take anything. They couldn’t just steal a word after all. Then again… who could…?

“Like you don’t know. Don’t play coy, it’s rude.” Johan narrowed his eyes. Roxas mentally cursed. Mission failed. Johan waved them away. “Go bug who ever’s running the accessory shop today. I’m trying to work here.”

Roxas glanced around the shop, empty except for them. “Uhh....”

“Good luck with that...,” Hayner mumbled. Pence swatted his arm, then started dragging him out of the shop. “Oh come on...!” Hayner squirmed in protest, but Pence got him out onto the street. Olette shrugged and trailed after them. Roxas reluctantly followed, glancing over his shoulder to see Johan lean his head on his hand and stare blankly at the far wall. What was he looking at...?

“Johan’s my cousin,” Pence huffed. “If we get him upset he’s gonna tell my mom about all the rumors and I’ll get in trouble.”

Hayner sighed, linking his fingers behind his head. Roxas blinked. That pose looked... familiar. 

_So-_

Olette patted Roxas’s shoulder. “We should go ask the accessory shop. Miss Maple always liked you Roxas. I’m sure she’ll be more likely to believe us.”

Roxas nodded. “Yeah. Just don’t do the hiding behind me thing again. I am /not/ doing this by myself.”

Hayner slapped him on the back. “Come on Roxas! It’s just a weird old grandma. Are you scared of the scary grandmama~?” He leaned in, puckering his lips and batting his eyelashes. 

Roxas flicked Hayner’s forehead. “Ow! Fuck! Why?!” Hayner yelped as he jerked his head back and covered his forehead with both hands. “Rude...!” He huffed. 

Roxas snickered. “Come on Mr. Master Detective.”

“No that’s me.” Pence insisted. 

 

Miss Maple, the owner and most regular employee of the accessory shop, sat near the back as usual. She was almost always there. She looked up as they came closer and scurried to the front counter with a shine in her eyes. “Oh Roxas! So nice to see-“ She paused suddenly, getting a sad look on her face. “Or... I suppose it’s not actually....” She looked up at him with wide eyes brimming with tears. “Oh, please don’t let me down Roxas, you’ve always been one of my favorite customers....”

“We didn’t steal anything.” Roxas insisted. Miss Maple looked down at the counter. “It’s not fun having everyone expect us you know....”

“No, I suppose it’s not,” she admitted, raising her eyes to look at him again. “Then you’ve got to find a way to clear your name, Dear. And hurry with it too!” Her hands shot across the counter, grabbing Roxas’s and holding both of his hands between her very cold ones. Roxas almost shivered. “Please... don’t break this old woman’s heart....”

Roxas pushed a smile onto his face. “I... I won’t....” Miss Maple smiled back at him, then released his hands. “You should talk to Candy too. She’s almost as heart broken as me.” 

 

Candy, the part timer at the candy shop, who was very much a fan of puns, was rooting around in the back of the shop when they walked up. Pence practically hung himself over the counter, eyeing the licorice. “Hey Candy,” he called, “What are you looking for?”

Candy whipped her head around, her braid smacking her in the face. “Ow- Oh, hello Pence, Olette, Hayner, Roxas.” She pushed herself to her feet. “You all wouldn’t happened to have seen Snickers, would you?”

“You mean the cat on the awning?” Hayner asked, pointing upwards to the overhanging awning that served as a shop front. Roxas stepped back, craning his neck to see the bespeckled cat peering down at them. It peeped and ducked out of sight. 

“I’ll get him,” Roxas volunteered. He stepped out to the side of the shop and gauged his jump. If he could kick off the wall, then grab the edge of the awning... he might just be able to pull himself up. He glanced at Hayner, Pence and Olette. “Watch your heads.” He sprinted forward. Kicking off the wall of the candy shop and reaching out as far as he could, his gut slammed into the side of the awning. Roxas felt all the air in his lungs escape, and he spent a moment half hanging over the edge of the awning to catch his breath. “Guess... I can jump... higher than I thought...,” he breathed when he finally caught his breath. 

Something furry pressed against his hand. Looking up, Roxas found the cat head butting his fingers. “Hey there... uh- Snickers....” He stroked once down the cat’s back, then gently scooped up the cat and pushed himself off the awning. He landed in a crouch, barely feeling the impact in a way that honestly surprised him. He straightened up and offered the cat to Candy. 

Candy’s face lit up. “Oh Snickers,” she cooed, gingerly taking the cat from Roxas’s hand. “Naughty kitty...! How were you planning on getting back down?” The cat peeped at her. Candy set the cat down inside the candy shop. Roxas watched as it immediately started climbing the shelves to hide in the rafters. 

Candy smiled sweetly at them. “Thank you Roxas.”

Roxas gave a small nod, looking away bashfully. Pence piped up. “We’re investigating all the robberies around town. Didn’t the thieves take something from you too, Candy?”

Candy blinked, then gasped. “They did! I came in one morning and it was gone! Oh, I was so heart broken....”

“Just so you know,” Hayner started. “We’re /not/ the thieves.”

“Oh I’m very sure you’re not.” Candy smiled.

Hayner blinked. “Oh. Well okay then....”

“Because Pence here is such a sweetheart. And I could never believe he’d take something so precious from so many people.” She cooed, patting Pence’s hair. 

“Ah.” Hayner mumbled. 

“So...,” Olette chimed in, elbowing Hayner in the ribs. “What did they take from you?”

“Oh, my _____. My favorite one too....” She crossed her arms, her lips forming into a childish pout. “I don’t think I could ever replicate that _____.... It was special.” She lowered her face into her hands and let out a dramatic sob. 

“Well, thank you for the help! We’ll do our best to find it!” Olette chirped, taking a small step back as Hayer started drifting away from the candy shop. She trotted after him, leaving Roxas to follow. Pence bought a green apple sucker before he joined them. 

“So the thief is stealing actual ______ too, not just the word,” Hayner mumbled. He winced and covered his throat with his hand. “Forgot it felt like that....” He breathed. 

Pence tapped a sucker stick against his bottom lip. “This is no ordinary thief. Are we assuming that the person who stole the word is the same one that stole the- uh... the objects?” 

Roxas nodded, stuffing his hands in his jacket pockets. “I think we have to. It’s too much of a coincidence to be unrelated.”

Olette tilted her head, chewing her lip as she thought aloud. “I wonder if Seifer....”

“There’s no way Seifer’s the thief,” Hayner butted in. “As much as I’d like to prove he did it just to trash talk us.”

Olette shook her head. “No no, but didn’t he say that his- that something was stolen from him too? Maybe he saw something.”

“Probably not,” Pence mumbled around his sucker. “Since he thought we took it.”

“Even so,” Roxas mused. “It... probably won’t hurt....” He forced a smile onto his face. “Right?”

Hayner laughed awkwardly. “Yeah... it won’t hurt....” He didn’t sound convinced. 

“To the Sandlot...!” Roxas raised his arm, feeling his smile turn into a grimace. “Yeah...!”

Olette rolled her eyes. “Really guys. Dramatic much?”

 

It was little surprise to find Seifer’s crew hanging around in the Sandlot. Vivi, Fuu, and Rai were there, though Seifer was nowhere to be seen. They’d obviously been practicing for the Struggle tournament, there was a stand full of Struggle bats set up next to the bench Vivi was standing on. Fuu and Rai were talking to Vivi, well, Rai was doing most of the talking. Vivi visibly gasped and pointed at Roxas, Hayner, Pence, and Olette when they caught sight of them. 

Fuu turned on her heel and pointed straight at Hayner. “Thieves.”

Rai turned towards them, crossing his arms. “That was not cool y’know!

Vivi nodded stiffly, almost knocking their hat off their head. They quickly grabbed and held the brim of their hat and nodded stiffly again. 

Hayner scowled. “Oh yeah? Don’t act like you all didn’t start those rumors! Where’s Seifer?!”

“Real nice comeback blondie.” Seifer scoffed, walking in from an ally. Roxas blinked. What the heck was he doing in there? Was he waiting for them to show up so he could make a dramatic entrance? Roxas wouldn’t put it past him. 

“Hah?” Hayner growled. 

Seifer strode across the Sandlot like he hadn’t heard him. His cyan eyes were fixed on Roxas’s with an expression he couldn’t quite place. “You can give me back my _____ now.” Seifer looked like he’d almost gagged and made a face like he’d swallowed something unexpectedly. Roxas felt a little sorry for him. But only a little. 

“We don’t have your stupid _____!” Hayner cried, then winced and swallowed thickly as the word caught in his throat. 

“You’re the only ones who’d take it!” Rai insisted. “Y’know?!” He glanced at Seifer and held up his fist like he was threatening them. Roxas felt his shoulders stiffen. Something inside him steeled his resolve. 

“That- The thing you stole was undeniable proof that we totally owned you Lamers.” Seifer pointed at Roxas accusingly. “So what’d you do? Hide it? Tear it up? Burn it?” He narrowed his eyes. “Not that I need it to remember how bad you lost.” He smirked, looking down at him. 

“Yeah!” Rai cheered. “Seifer don’t need no proof to know how much you suck. Seifer’s the best, y’know?!”

“Good grief,” Olette breathed. Roxas could practically feel her rolling her eyes. 

“Rematch.” Fuu proposed. 

“Sounds fun...,” Seifer grinned, reaching out to snatch the Struggle bat Vivi tossed to him. “But maybe if you get on your knees and beg, I might just let you walk away from this.” He pointed his bat at Roxas. Vivi, Fuu and Rai each drew their own bats. 

Roxas felt his nerves go into overdrive. It felt like time had slowed down. His eyes flicked from Seifer, to his bat, to Vivi, Fuu and Rai, to the extra bats that were slowly rolling off their stand. Rai must have knocked it off balance when he grabbed his bat. Roxas’s eyes glanced behind him, to see Pence and Olette trying not to hide behind him and to beside him where Hayner was just barely holding himself back. 

An idea formed in Roxas’s mind. His eyes flicked towards the bats, now rolling their way between where Seifer stood and where Roxas was. Roxas took a deep breath and started walking forward, slowly and with purpose. Roxas felt every eye in the Sandlot on him, and not on the bats slowly rolling towards him. Perfect. Roxas slowly lowered himself to one knee, barely touching his fingers to the ground, not putting any weight on his hand. Something about this felt comforting. This kind of adrenaline made him feel... clear headed.

“Roxas!” Hayner cried indignantly. “What the hell are you-?” He cut himself off. He saw the bats. 

Roxas launched himself forward, grabbing the nearest one and throwing the second towards Hayner. He snatched it out of the air with a wide grin. 

Seifer scoffed and lifted his bat again. “That was stupid,” he growled. 

“We’ll see,” Roxas shot back. He felt his body fall into a flow, a kind of rhythm that he couldn’t remember learning. He parried and blocked Seifer’s strikes with relative ease. Seifer had nothing on-. Roxas stumbled backwards as Seifer kicked at his legs. Then he dove in again, ducking under a wild swing and bringing his bat around to slam into Seifer’s stomach. 

Seifer gasped as all the breath left his lungs in a whoosh. He stumbled back, clutching his gut as he tried to drag air down his throat. Roxas dropped his stance, straightening up with the bat hanging loosely in his hand. A part of him was a little surprised that his opponent was still there. 

_Don’t they usually disintegrate when I beat them?_

Roxas shook the thought out of his head. Just in time to see the venomous look Seifer gave him. Seifer opened his mouth, most likely to snap a biting comment at Roxas. But before he could, Fuu and Rai stepped in between them, blocking Seifer from his sight. Something settled in Roxas, relaxing now that the enemy had disappeared. _”Where the hell did that come from?”_

“Seifer’s not feeling so good! He’s not been sleeping so good, so he’s tired, y’know?!” 

“Rematch in tournament,” Fuu added. 

“Say cheese!” Pence called. Roxas’s head snapped towards him. He’d stepped to the side, so he could get a shot of everyone. The camera flashed and immediately started printing.

Roxas chuckled. That one was probably going on their display barrel. Pence held the print up, eyeing the drying ink when something pale colored shot out of nowhere. Pence yelped and backed up so fast he tripped and fell down. The blur of pale off-white, a creature with long gangly limbs and no clearly discernible face, snatched the print out of Pence’s hands and darted around a corner, towards the Tram Commons. 

Everyone stood shady for a moment, staring after it like they weren’t sure what they had just seen. Hayner finally broke the shocked silence. “What the fu-?!”

“That was the thief!” Olette cried, pointing after where the creature had gone. “Get them!”

Roxas bolted after the white blur, catching a lamp post to swing himself around the corner. He heard Hayner and Seifer right behind him, their shoes hitting the ground almost like echoing his. Fuu and Rai were behind them. Fuu shouted something Roxas didn’t catch. Pence, Olette, and Vivi were doing their best to keep up, but their shouting faded as Roxas followed the white thing through the Tram Commons. It slithered through a hole in the wall and Roxas slipped through behind it, barely slowing down. 

He couldn’t hear anyone else anymore. He almost glanced behind him, but that’d mean taking his eyes off the white thing. It danced and wove through the trees like a too tightly woven cloud of smoke. It almost seemed to be taunting him, or inviting him to follow. Roxas tightened his grip on the Struggle bat and followed it. 

As Roxas crept forwards, he felt the soft dirt of the forest floor giving way under his shoes. The trees seemed to stretch higher and higher as he got deeper into it. Something about this place felt... so incredibly lonely. The smell of dirt filled his nose and the barest hint of smoke followed him as he crept after the creature. 

Suddenly the trees gave way to a clearing, a large wall and gate cutting through it. Roxas felt a sense of unease at something beyond the gate. He stared up at the only bright window. A white curtain rustled in the breeze. For a moment, Roxas thought he saw someone, a flash of light blond hair, but then it was gone. 

The white creature stood in front of the gate, swaying back and forth like there wasn’t a bone in its body. Roxas finally got a good look at it. It was thin, too thin, with a diamond shaped head. It’s mouth was a zipper, pulled tightly shut. On its face, or rather, the flat, angled part of its head, it had a sigil, barely a few shades lighter than its skin. Roxas felt an unnerved fear rise up in his chest. He heard a voice. 

_We have come for you, my liege._

That voice... it wasn’t speaking in any language he’d heard before, more like hisses and whispers just on the edge of his hearing. But somehow, Roxas understood what it said. “What...,” he breathed. The smell of smoke got a little stronger. 

Several more white things appeared all around him, closing off any escape route. Roxas felt his panic shoot through his veins. The creatures surged forward, too long fingers reaching for him. 

He reacted on instincts he didn’t know he had. He rolled between two of them and lashed out with his Struggle bat, raking it against the nearest creature’s knees. But it was like hitting water. He felt his strike connect, but the creature’s form just bent with his strike, then bounced back into place. Roxas just had time to think, “Oh shit-“ before the creatures were on him again. 

He did his best to dodge them, all he could do was dodge, but it wasn’t long before his eyes stung with sweat and his hand was shaking from how tight he was holding his bat. “It’s... no use...,” he gasped as he ducked another creature lunging at him, this one nearly catching the back of his shirt. They were getting closer by the moment. “It’s not fair.... I can’t even hit them...!”

He lifted his bat anyways, in an useless attempt to block the creature that leapt at his face, arms outstretched. A green light, made of circles and ones, swirled around his bat, and suddenly his bat wasn’t a bat anymore. There was a sharp flash of white light and suddenly the creature that had almost had him was gone. Roxas stared at the giant key in his hands. He didn’t have the bat anymore. His eyes flickered up, eyeing the creatures. 

_Keyblade...._

_It’s my keyblade!_

_It can banish the ones we fight._

_So use it!_

Roxas felt a surge of alertness shoot through him. And he charged. 

 

The last creature disappeared under his keyblade, fading like a dream. The only trace that it had ever been there were the photos that fluttered to the ground in its place. Roxas knelt down, vaguely registering the keyblade disappearing from his fingers as he picked up all the photos. He cradled them to his chest like they were a precious thing, and carried them back to Hayner and the others, back to the usual place. 

 

Hayner picked up another photo from the pile, turning it over in his hand. “Who’s this one from?”

Olette leaned over his shoulder to get a better look. She snatched the photo from his hand and held it up for Roxas to see. “What’s the story behind this one?”

Roxas looked it over. “Mr. Caramel’s first day as owner of the candy shop. I was his first customer, so he had us take a photo together.”

Olette sighed softly, leaning back against the couch. “A nice photo. Photo. Photo. It feels so good to be able to say that word again.”

Hayner nodded in agreement. “So Roxas, the thief...?”

He shrugged. “Like I said, no idea who, or what, it was. It looked like something out of my /nightmares/.”

“Oh?” Hayner mused, sticking his face close to Roxas’s. “You psychic or something....?”

Roxas laughed. “If only. Imagine the look on Seifer’s face!”

Hayner leaned against him, smushing his cheek against his shoulder. “Still though... how are we supposed to prove we aren’t the thieves...?”

“Sneak the photos back?” Olette proposed. “No... that’d look too suspicious....”

“So...” Pence started. “Am I going crazy, or are all of these pictures of Roxas?”

Olette’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh! You’re right! He’s in every single one!” She pointed to the background of a couple photos. “See, even the ones he’s photo-bombing...!” 

“You’re just real happy you can say ‘photo’ again, aren’t you?” Hayner muttered. Roxas shushed him. “So maybe Seifer... didn’t... tell everyone we did it....” He grumbled indignantly. 

Roxas leaned forward, eyebrows knitting together. “They really are... all of me....” Something was nagging at him, at the back of his mind, he was trying to remember something. Something was missing. “That’s so... weird....”

Pence tapped his finger against his chin. “What if... the thief wanted to steal the real Roxas...? And maybe this was lead up to it?”

A very cold feeling slithered up his spine. Those creatures hadn’t been trying to grab him... had they...? They had. They definitely had. Roxas forced himself to swallow. 

“Pff!” Hayner laughed. “Get real, who’d wanna steal Roxas?! He’s smelly.” 

“Says the one with his face on his shoulder....” Olette giggled. Hayner stuck his tongue out at her. 

“Sure hope it’s not a stalker...,” Pence mumbled. 

“Oh thanks...!” Roxas moaned, shoving the anxious feelings out of his mind. “That makes me feel so much better...!”

“Who’d wanna stalk you?” Hayner scoffed. 

“A crazy person...?” Roxas raised an eyebrow. 

“So... Seifer then?!” Hayner grinned. Roxas snorted. 

Olette slapped a hand over her mouth to hold in her laugh. “That’s... that’s not... not nice...,” She said through her muffled giggles. 

The train station bells rang in the hour as a train came rushing into the station, rumbling the tracks overhead. 

 

The smell of smoke hung heavy around the top of the clock tower as the sun started setting. A lonely figure in black sat on the railing of the balcony in front of the clock. Red hair, the same color as the setting sun, danced in the wind. The wind brought whispers to his ears, reports hissed in final moments as the Dusks faded completely from their existing nonexistence. 

So Roxas had summoned his keyblade, even in here, in this artificial world. That was a good sign, at least he hoped it was. But his memories were still messed up, or else he wouldn’t have destroyed the Dusks. Axel tapped his fingers against his knee, feeling an uncomfortable absence at his side. Roxas should be here, chattering away about his mission for the day. But he was down there, returning the photos the Dusks had mistaken him for. 

Stupid data world. Stupid person running it. The bastard had removed the word ‘photo’ from the whole damn program, just so the Dusks couldn’t tell the real Roxas from the ones in photos. Coding was stupid. Axel decided he wanted to light the bastard’s computer on fire when this was all over, when Roxas was back sitting next to him again, filling in that empty space. Maybe Roxas could smash it with his keyblade. That’d be pretty funny. 

Axel leaned back, stuffing his hand into his pocket, pulling out the two photos he hadn’t given back. The first, was a picture purely of Roxas, a green butterfly perched his hair. He looked a lot like Ven in this picture, so much so that Axel had to again wonder what ever happened to the friend he’d only met once. Roxas was obviously not Ven, or even his Nobody. But he couldn’t help but wonder....

The second photo was one Axel debated setting on fire multiple times. Roxas and the blond boy he hung out with, on the couch in their hang out, the blond boy sitting on Roxas’s chest. They were staring at the camera like it had caught them doing something they shouldn’t have. Something about the photo, the situation, made his stomach turn, and something in his chest tighten. It wasn’t a heart. It couldn’t be a heart. He didn’t have a heart. Axel slipped both photos back into his pocket, closing his eyes to call for more Dusks. He’d get Roxas back, no matter what it took.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A note about Seifer: He’s projecting real bad. He can’t find his own rival, dear ol Squall, so he’s trying to make Roxas a replacement Squall, but it’s really not working, so Seifer’s a bit grumpier than usual. 
> 
> (Also Vivi uses they/them pronouns, cuz I asked people who know way more about Final Fantasy than me and they said yea.)
> 
> Let me know what y’all think! Hopefully I’m getting back into the swing of writing after summer break (hopefully winter break won’t mess me up again). So more to come soon hopefully! ^3^ bb

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed! :3
> 
> This is a kinda exparamental writing style for me, but I think it’s turning out pretty cool. :}
> 
> I have a couple ideas for where this story could go. It’s either gonna be canon complacent or completely not at all. I haven’t decided yet. I donno if I want all the ideas I have to be in this story or if I should put them in other stories. =3=


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